REBUILD
SCOTLAND
The Scottish Conservative a ist Party
Manifesto 2021
1. FULL FIBRE BROADBAND ROLLOUT
2. £2 BILLION EXTRA FOR OUR NHS
3. £500 SKILLS GRANT FOR EVERYONE
4. RECRUIT 3,000 MORE TEACHERS
5. MORE LOCAL POLICING
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Conservative UN
& Unionist
Contents
Introduction
End Division. No Referendum. Rebuild Scotland.
Driving Scotland’s economic recovery
Rebuilding our communities
Restoring world-class Scottish education
Supporting our NHS
Tackling crime & putting victims first
Representing rural Scotland
& our natural environment
Protecting the most vulnerable in our society
Ensuring the Scottish Parliament works
in the national interest
Prioritising our recovery
The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2021
Introduction
Scotland stands at a crossroads. We are
emerging from over a year of restrictions put
in place to tackle coronavirus.
Those restrictions closed shops and schools,
they separated families and friends. Ona
national level, they have done incredible
damage to our economy, but they have also
affected every single one of us personally.
Coronavirus has sadly cost the lives of over
10,000 Scots. However, the pandemic also
united us around protecting what mattered.
We came together as communities to
follow the rules and help each other
through this. The UK and Scottish
Governments largely worked together
to support the whole country — such as
protecting over one million Scottish jobs
through furlough and vaccinating 2.6
million Scots in just four months.
We are almost at the end of this health
crisis. Yet, we then face the long and difficult
task of rebuilding the Scottish economy, of
getting businesses back to earning a living
and creating jobs for those people who
have been left unemployed. This will require
the same collective national effort that saw
us through the worst days of lockdown.
However, the SNP now want to take
Scotland off the road to recovery. Nicola
Sturgeon has said that she wants to hold an
independence referendum when we are in
the “recovery phase” from the pandemic.
And so, Scotland faces a choice. To continue
with our recovery or to allow the SNP to
pursue a referendum. We cannot have both.
A second independence referendum would
damage our economy. Just like in 2014, it
would divide our country when we all need
to pull together to rebuild.
If we continue with our recovery, we can get
our Scottish Parliament 100 per cent focused
on getting our economy growing and
supporting our public services. On the things
that really matter to you and your family.
We can deliver full fibre broadband for every
household and business in our country by
2027.
With a growing economy, we can increase
the NHS budget by £2 billion.
We can give every single Scot access to
£500 for training, every year.
We can restore our schools by recruiting
3,000 teachers.
And we can ensure that there is more local
policing to keep your streets safe.
Those are just a few examples from this
manifesto of what we can do with a Scottish
Parliament working in the national interest.
Of the positive programme we can take
forward, if we get all of Scotland’s parties to
focus on our recovery from the pandemic
and if we work with rather than against the
UK Government.
But we will not be able to achieve any of
that if the SNP win a majority in this election,
which they will take as a green light to hold
a second referendum.
So the only way we can choose to
continue with recovery is by stopping that
SNP majority and their plans for another
independence referendum.
And just like in 2016, the only way that we
can prevent that outcome is if voters come
together and give their party list vote to the
Scottish Conservatives.
We need to stay on the road to recovery
to prevent coronavirus resulting in a lost
generation of Scots.
Only the Scottish Conservatives can keep
our country united and focused on our
national recovery from the pandemic.
Let’s secure our recovery and rebuild
Scotland together.
Douglas Ross
Leader of the Scottish Conservative
& Unionist Party
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End Division. No Referendum.
Rebuild Scotland.
Coronavirus has affected every single
person in Scotland. Lives and livelihoods
have been damaged, and we have all
faced moments when it has seemed like it
is just too much to bear. The pandemic has
been an awful tragedy that has cut the size
of our economy by a tenth and claimed the
lives of 10,000 Scots. It has also had deeply
personal effects, isolating us from friends
and family, disrupting learning and work
and stopping us from doing the activities
We enjoy.
However, thanks to the tremendous success
of the UK vaccination programme, which has
seen over 2.6 million Scots receive their first
dose in just four months and over 500,000
receiving their second, we are now lifting
restrictions and can begin to see an end to
the lockdown and the pandemic. We will
be able to get our lives back and renew our
relationships with family and friends again.
Yet we cannot forget, with the promise
of happier times ahead, the deep scars
that coronavirus has left across Scotland.
Our people and our nation need time to
rebuild and to heal so that a generation is
not permanently affected by the pandemic.
Children need to catch up on a year of
missed schooling, businesses need to get
back to regular trading and our NHS needs
to be supported to get through a backlog
of delayed operations, put on hold because
of coronavirus. Our economy is not
expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels
until 2024. It should be the only priority
of both of our governments to focus on
delivering that recovery, so that our public
services and economy can rebuild fully
from the pandemic.
This is a monumental task of national
importance. That is why it is incredible that
the SNP believes that now is the right time to
hold a second independence referendum.
Nicola Sturgeon has said that she wants
to hold that vote in the first half of the next
Parliament and SNP ministers and senior
MPs have called for it to be held later this
year. The SNP have also committed to hold
that referendum regardless of whether it is
agreed by the UK Government or not. If the
SNP win control of our Parliament, they
will hold that referendum at the earliest
opportunity.
Just when we have gone through a health
crisis and are deep in the middle of an
economic crisis, the SNP want to start a
political crisis — one that would consume
our Parliament and our politics just like it
did in 2014. That would be the last thing
our country needs to recover from the
pandemic. It would damage our recovery
by distracting attention away from our
economy and public services. It would divide
our country, set the Scottish Government
against the UK Government, and divide
our communities, turning friends and family
against one another, just when we all need
to pull together to rebuild. We cannot
recover with a referendum hanging over
our future.
If the SNP win a majority then they will
hold a referendum and put their political
obsession ahead of our national interest.
At the Scottish Parliament Election, voters
have the chance to say no to a second
independence referendum by denying the
SNP a majority. Without a majority they will
not be able to pursue a referendum and
will need to focus instead on rebuilding our
country. A Scottish Parliament without a
majority means that all of Scotland’s parties
will have to work together in a national effort
to deliver our recovery.
At the last Scottish Parliament Election, more
than 500,000 Scots backed the Scottish
Conservatives with their party list vote and
together we stopped the SNP from winning
a majority and taking forward their plans
for a divisive referendum during the last
five years. Together, we can stop them
again. As the largest opposition party, we
can stop a referendum and get the Scottish
Parliament laser-focused on delivering our
recovery from coronavirus. The other parties
are too weak to prevent a majority and will
not stand up to the SNP.
In this election, Scotland faces a choice
between an SNP majority government
pushing for another divisive referendum
or a Scottish Parliament working to rebuild
our country. Only a party list vote for
the Scottish Conservatives can stop a
referendum again and secure our recovery
from coronavirus.
As part of a Scottish Parliament focused 100 per cent
on our national recovery from coronavirus, the Scottish
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VICTIMS BILL
ENTERPRISE BILL
NHS FUTURE FUNDING BILL
ARTS BILL
LOCAL POLICING BILL
COMMUNITIES BILL
CIRCULAR ECONOMY BILL
NATURE BILL
ANIMAL WELFARE BILL
AGRICULTURE BILL
ARMED FORCES & VETERANS BILL
FREE SPEECH BILL
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT REFORM BILL
REFERENDUM (REPEAL) BILL
NON-DOMESTIC RATES REFORM BILL
Driving Scotland’s economic
recovery
Our economy is not an abstract concept,
it concerns every single job and business
in our country. It affects the wages of
workers and the resources that we
have to fund public services. Over the
past 14 years, Scotland’s economy has
never been the top priority of the SNP
Government.
The restrictions put in place to manage
the coronavirus pandemic have done
severe damage to our economy. 2020
saw the sharpest recession on record,
with the Scottish economy shrinking by
a tenth. The Scottish Fiscal Commission
estimates that our economy will not
recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024,
with unemployment expected to almost
double later this year. While the rollout of
vaccinations may be bringing an end to
restrictions, their legacy on our economy
will last for much longer.
The cycle of easing and tightening
restrictions has seen shops, restaurants
and pubs expend savings as they have
been forced to close for protracted
periods. Many businesses that have not
been directly affected by the restrictions
have still seen their customer base
shrink or have suffered as a result of
supply chains drying up. Sadly, there are
businesses that have closed their doors
for the last time and many people who
have lost their jobs.
The UK Government's furlough and self-
employment income support schemes,
which have protected over one million
Scottish jobs, were a lifeline for many
workers. However, we have seen the
SNP repeatedly fail employers. Promised
funding has taken months to pay out and
many businesses have found themselves
having to meet the costs of fighting
coronavirus alone.
The Scottish Conservatives believe that
supporting our economy to recover
will be the foremost challenge that the
Scottish Parliament faces over the next
five years. If we do not back businesses
and support growth then we will hold back
our recovery and people will lose their
jobs. In 2014, we saw job creation and
investment decisions delayed because
of the Independence Referendum. We
need to stop an SNP majority and another
divisive referendum so that our economy
can recover and grow.
Our number one priority
The economic impact of the coronavirus
restrictions is going to make unemployment
a key challenge in coming months,
despite the support provided through UK
Government job support schemes. The
Scottish Conservatives believe that every
single person should have the right to
work, to earn a living for themselves and
their family. No one should want to work
but be unable to get a job.
We need to be focused now on preventing
unemployment and helping those who
become unemployed to find work. That is
why the Scottish Conservatives believe
that achieving full employment should
be the number one priority for the next
Scottish Parliament. We would deliver a
Scottish economic recovery focused on
creating good jobs in every part of our
country.
Supporting businesses as we
reopen our economy
Throughout this pandemic we have faced
a difficult balance between protecting
lives and livelihoods — between taking the
necessary action to control coronavirus
and shutting down large sections of our
economy. So many people are worried
about the future of their job or their
business.
It is essential that we continue to support
businesses, to protect jobs and our
economy, in the immediate term as we
ease restrictions. That is why we led the
opposition within the Scottish Parliament
for increased engagement, tax reliefs and
support from the SNP Government for
business. The Scottish Conservatives
would take a cautious approach to
easing restrictions but one that does
not leave them in force when the data
suggests we can safely reopen faster.
We also need to ensure that the needs of
employers are represented at the heart of
decision making as we recover. We would
establish a standing Business Recovery
Council, to ensure that the interests of
business and our economy are central to
our plan to rebuild Scotland.
Throughout this pandemic, the Scottish
Government has been slow to pay out
grant support and many businesses
have found themselves ineligible for
payments. The SNP has created over 40
business funds and in some parts of the
country employers have been waiting
months for applications to be processed.
That is why we would introduce a
10-working day national standard for
all grant applications to be processed,
with support for councils that are lagging
behind. We would simplify the interface
for businesses to access government
support, both for COVID and non-COVID
related funding. We would ensure that
businesses likely to remain closed for
the longest, like nightclubs, continue to
receive regular payments.
To ensure businesses can continue
to focus on protecting their staff and
customers from coronavirus and on
recovering from the pandemic, we would
delay the introduction of any new non-
COVID related regulations on businesses
to April 2023. We would also introduce
a one-week minimum adaptation
period between the announcement and
introduction of new restrictions, in the
instance that they are required for a future
local or national outbreak.
Delivering competitive business
rates
The pandemic has shown us very clearly
that the current system of taxing non-
domestic property does not work for
many businesses. Physical retailers find
themselves paying higher taxes than their
online competitors, despite the latter often
supporting fewer local jobs and generally
enjoying lower costs. Hotels struggling
to make ends meet are counted as
large businesses and pay a supplement
because they occupy a large property.
The system for assessing the rateable
value of properties is underpinned by
legislation set in 1854.
To support businesses to recover from
the pandemic and prevent a cliff edge
increase in taxes on those that are already
struggling, the Scottish Conservatives
fought alongside business and secured
an extension to the 100 per cent relief
on leisure, hospitality, retail, newspaper
and aviation businesses for the whole of
2021-22. Given the continued economic
uncertainty we would also look to offer at
least 25 per cent rates relief to businesses
in 2022-23. The exact level will be
dependent on the economic conditions
at the time. We would also maintain the
poundage rate freeze until the 2023
revaluation. In addition, we will ensure that
businesses are not penalised through the
2023 revaluation process for measures
taken to make their premise COVID-secure.
The Small Business Bonus Scheme means
that a business premises with a rateable
value of £15,000 pays nothing in tax,
whereas a business with a rateable value
of £15,001 pays tax of £5,513. We would
retain the Small Business Bonus Scheme
and introduce a more tapered scheme on
rates relief for businesses with a rateable
value of £15,000 and £20,000 to remove
the cliff edge on relief.
The Barclay Review made some important
contributions, but we are nearly four years
on from its publication and it was hindered
by the SNP’s decision to make it a cost
neutral review. We need to be prepared to
go much further in reassessing the way we
tax business. The Scottish Conservatives
would undertake a wholesale review of
the business rates system before the end
of the Parliament. This work would be
informed by the ongoing review in England.
A skills revolution
Our economic recovery must be driven
by investing in people. Gone are the days
when workers would be educated in their
youth, find a job and work in that sector all
their lives. Now people will have multiple
careers and will need to train and acquire
skills throughout their working lives. To
keep Scotland competitive, we need to
overhaul conventions on learning and
deliver a skills revolution.
To incentivise lifelong learning, by 2023 we
will introduce a Right to Retrain Account
for every single Scottish adult, containing
£500 to be spent on training every year.
We will fund 100,000 accounts as a pilot
in 2021 and 2022 to help people newly
unemployed as a result of the pandemic to
gain new skills.
People who have become unemployed
need to acquire skills to help them get
a job quickly, which means courses with
inflexible entry dates which take a year
or longer are not suitable. We would
bring together employers, skills providers
and colleges to form new Institutes
of Technology and work with them to
design a new system of Rapid Retraining
Courses - short, sharp courses tailored
to employment opportunities. Given
the pressing need for digital skills in our
economy, we would ensure every single
Scottish adult has basic digital skills by
2026.
To tackle unemployment, we would create
a network of Job Security Councils to
swiftly find new opportunities for laid-off
workers and ensure that skills are retained
in sectors of our economy where there
is continued need for them. We will set
up the first of these to respond to the
downturn in the oil and gas sector.
Apprenticeships are a great way of
ensuring that our workforce, and
especially the next generation, has
the skills our economy needs. The UK
Apprenticeship Levy, worth around
£246 million in funding for the Scottish
Government, was introduced to grow the
number of apprenticeships, yet the SNP
have failed to meet their own manifesto
promises on apprenticeship numbers. We
would flip the system to a demand-led
approach, whereby employers create
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places and then come forward to bid for
funding from government. This approach
could deliver unlimited apprenticeship
opportunities. Our ambition would be to
spend every penny of the Apprenticeship
Levy on supporting apprenticeships.
We would also expand funding and
subject range for Foundation and
Graduate apprenticeships. We would
remove the £15,000 artificial cap on
government support for an employer for
apprenticeship places. We would ensure
that apprentices under 25 are required
to receive ‘off the job’ training through
day or block release. Only 38 per cent
of new Modern Apprentices are women,
so we would deliver a fresh campaigning
initiative to encourage more girls to take
up apprenticeships after school.
Rebuilding every part of Scotland
In order to deliver full employment, we
need to promote growth and good jobs in
every part of our country. People should
be able to find a good job locally and
not have their opportunities restricted
because of where they live.
£1.8 billion is spent each year on economic
development in Scotland by our two
governments, 32 local authorities and a
score of development agencies and public
bodies. We need to ensure that resource
is being effectively mobilised to create
jobs and support businesses to grow. The
Fraser of Allander Institute has warned of
a “cluttered policy landscape” holding our
economy back.
We must take advantage of Scotland’s
regional economic strengths and build
them up. Highlands and Islands Enterprise
and the new South of Scotland Enterprise
are catered towards the economic
strengths of their areas. Scotland’s two
governments are already funding £3.3
billion of investment through the City and
Region Growth Deals Programme, which
has seen Scotland’s local authorities come
together to form natural partnerships. We
have also seen business partnerships,
such as Opportunity North East, play
an important role in securing regional
investment.
To deliver growth and create jobs in
every part of our country, we would bring
forward an Enterprise Bill establishing
an economic development agency in
each region of Scotland. This would
enable us to create lasting partnerships
between government, local authorities,
education providers and business and
build on the work started by Growth
Deals and the increased contact between
councils and businesses as a result of
the coronavirus grants process. These
new agencies would be a single point of
contact between businesses and wider
government.
Working with rather than against
the UK Government
The economy is an area of shared
competency — both the Scottish and UK
Governments have responsibility for it.
This can lead to instances where Scotland
gets the best of both worlds from its two
governments, such as the City and Growth
Deals programme. However, it can also
lead to duplication and waste, such as in
the similarities in services offered by the
Department for International Trade and
Scottish Development International. This
friction benefits the SNP’s constitutional
obsession, but it does not benefit
enterprises looking for government
support.
To encourage more collaboration
between our governments in support of
Scotland’s economy, we would give the UK
Government shared strategic oversight
of these regional economic agencies. We
will work with the UK Government and local
government on developing projects for
funding through the Community Renewal
Fund and UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Selling Scotland at home and
abroad
Driving Scottish exports will drive our
recovery. Scotland has a wealth of iconic
national products and to make a success
of leaving the EU, we need to promote
those products to new markets. We have
the opportunity to become a trading
nation, but it will require a clear strategy
and focus.
One of the great assets that Scotland has
is its diaspora. They are both a market
in themselves but also ambassadors for
our produce reaching larger markets
abroad. However, our neighbours in
Ireland are much more successful at using
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their diaspora to build an international
network of influencers. The GlobalScot
network run by the Scottish Government
is comparatively small and makes fewer
connections.
The Scottish Conservatives would
follow the Irish model to maximise the
use of our diaspora to sell Scotland. We
would expand the GlobalScot network
to enhance Scotland’s international
presence and exports, with the aim
of doubling sign ups by the end of the
Parliament.
To provide expertise to Scottish
companies selling abroad we would
establish an export mentor scheme, where
companies with exporting experience can
support those looking to expand abroad.
We would also drive a national exporting
campaign, encouraging companies to
expand internationally, and establish a
Scottish Exporting Institute, following
the model of the National Manufacturing
Institute, to act as a hub of trade expertise
in Scotland.
In addition to international exports, the
Scottish Conservatives would also look
to boost Scotland’s trade with the rest of
the UK. 60 per cent of Scotland’s trade is
with the other three UK nations. We would
create a network of Scottish trade hubs
in major UK cities to support investment
and export opportunities both to and
from Scotland.
Making Scotland the best place
in the world to visit
We do not just need to sell Scotland’s
products abroad, but also its potential
as the best place in the world to visit.
The Scottish tourism industry is reliant
on international customers, yet the
pandemic has meant that holidays were
cancelled last year and the sector is
almost certainly going to miss out on
another peak season in 2021. Given that
our tourism sector is going to be more
reliant on domestic visitors this year,
we would deliver a fresh campaign to
market Scotland as the destination of
choice for the rest of the UK.
However, we must also work to protect
communities and local services. We
will promote responsible tourism, so
that businesses bring benefits to the
communities and environment that they
are located in.
The SNP have taken a one-size-fits-
all approach to managing short-term
lets, damaging B&Bs and self-catering
accommodation in an attempt to manage
the Airbnb boom. We are opposed to any
regulation that does not put local choice
at its heart and fails to distinguish between
established accommodation providers and
the recent boom in short-term lets. We are
opposed to the SNP’s plans to introduce
a tourist tax, as it will only damage an
industry that has already suffered as a
result of the pandemic.
Innovation in our recovery
Coronavirus and the restrictions that
have been put in place to control it have
changed how we live our lives. Many
people are now more reliant on their
home internet connection to work and do
business and this is likely to continue even
after the pandemic.
However, the SNP’s rollout of the digital
infrastructure required to support this
has been marked by excessive delay.
They promised that their R100 superfast
broadband rollout would be finished in
2021, yet they only signed the contract to
deliver it in the north of the country at the
end of last year, with the completion date
being delayed to 2026.
The Scottish Conservatives would
connect every single home and business
property in Scotland to full fibre
broadband by 2027. This will allow for a
future-proofed digital network capable of
supporting 5G mobile coverage. We will
use all levers of government to achieve
this ambition, including the tax system,
planning rules and skills development. We
would bring forward legislation requiring
every new home to be built with a full fibre
connection. We will begin the rollout in
the rural areas left behind by R100.
We also need to support Scottish
companies to take full advantage of our
enhanced digital infrastructure. We will
move up to 10,000 Scottish businesses
online each year through a new
e-commerce taskforce, with our ambition
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being to make Scotland the ‘E-Commerce
Capital of Europe’.
The speed and success of coronavirus
vaccine development has demonstrated
the importance of innovation. We need
to take that same approach to research
to drive our economy. That is why we
would increase R&D expenditure in
Scotland to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2026.
We would also work with universities
to commercialise Intellectual Property,
through a new Scottish Future Growth
Fund.
The economies of Scotland's city regions
are driven by being centres of excellence,
whether it is oil and gas in Aberdeen,
financial services in Edinburgh or software
in Dundee. We would support sectoral
clustering to deliver the critical mass
and international reputation to attract
investment and create skilled jobs.
We would use the Scottish National
Investment Bank to support innovation in
our economy, such as the Scottish space
sector to enhance Scotland’s reputation
as a world leader in satellite technology.
Enhancing our circular economy
to deliver a green recovery
As we rebuild from the pandemic, we
need to ensure that we are delivering
a green recovery, where every job is
a green job. We need to create a truly
circular economy where we reduce,
reuse and recycle materials to cut down
on waste and create jobs. The best
way of achieving this is by working with
rather than against businesses. We will
encourage innovation to develop new
business models which help to secure
supply chains, retain value, deliver highly
skilled jobs and reduce our carbon
footprint. The vast majority of businesses
want to reduce emissions and do their
part to help Scotland achieve net zero by
2045 and they should be supported and
encouraged by government to do so.
To deliver this, we would bring forward
a Circular Economy Bill early in the next
Parliament. This will set new targets
for reducing our raw material usage,
especially those that are single use or
difficult to recycle.
Alongside this, we will invest in our
recycling capacity and fund the creation of
a Centre for Circular Economy Excellence
to drive the rollout of best practice in
business, public sector, the third sector
and communities. We will establish a
Circular Economy Awards Scheme to
recognise innovation in reuse and waste
reduction. We will ensure that public
procurement is used to incentivise the
delivery of our environmental targets and
enhance our circular economy.
We will work with the UK Government
to align the introduction of our Deposit
Return Scheme with the rest of the UK,
ensuring the successful delivery of the
scheme. We would continue to maintain
Scottish Landfill Tax rates at parity with
Landfill Tax in the rest of the UK to deter
waste tourism.
Later this year, the UK Government will
host the global COP26 climate change
conference in Glasgow, the largest
international conference to ever be
held in our country. We need to use this
opportunity to showcase Scotland as a
world leader in tackling climate change
and on environmental delivery.
Delivering a just transition for the
energy sector
We need to deliver a wholly renewable-
powered Scotland, and we have the
wealth of natural resources to achieve
this. However, we also need to take
account of the important role of oil and
gas in the Scottish economy and the tens
of thousands of jobs that are reliant on it.
We must make sure that our transition to
a renewable Scotland is fair and creates
opportunities, rather than leaving a
legacy of unemployment and damaged
communities.
We believe that North Sea oil and gas
has a long future of many decades
ahead, with petrochemicals continuing
to be used in the plastics, cosmetics and
pharmaceuticals we use every day. The
UK Government’s transformative North
Sea Transition Deal will invest up to £16
billion to reduce emissions and secure
40,000 jobs. We would ensure that the
Scottish Government is a partner in the
North Sea Transition Deal, to support
supply businesses through the transition
and as part of our proposals to give the
North East a fair share. We have always
said that we would base our approach
to fracking on scientific evidence of its
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impact. As such, we are opposed to
fracking in Scotland.
We will ensure that Scotland continues
to be at the forefront of the UK’s
expanding offshore wind sector. We also
support the expansion of onshore wind
capacity in Scotland where it is agreed
by and benefits local communities, as
well as our country as a whole. We would
incentivise the creation of a wind turbine
decommissioning centre.
We will support the development of
emerging renewable technologies,
particularly tidal, as we look to make
Scotland a renewable powerhouse. We
will make the adoption of green hydrogen
a priority, as a fuel source in transport and
for supporting the exporting of renewable
power, as we deliver Scotland’s clean
energy transformation. We will work with
the UK Government to develop and expand
Scotland’s pumped hydroelectric energy
storage and carbon capture capacity.
As a principle, the Scottish Government
should support Scottish companies in
any way it can. Devolved public bodies
in Scotland spend £12.6 billion procuring
goods and services each year. This is a
massive lever for driving growth, if we
mobilise this resource to support the
Scottish economy and if we use it to achieve
best value rather than lowest cost.
We would deliver a ‘Scotland First’
approach to procuring goods and
services with public money. That means
16
taking into account local jobs, skills
development, environmental and social
impacts and support for the Scottish
economy alongside costs. As part of this
we will blacklist companies that fail to pay
supply chains on time, make it easier for
small and medium sized businesses to bid
for contracts and encourage suppliers to
deliver solutions, not just services.
Financing our recovery
Many of the public services that we take
for granted each day have been put under
severe pressure because of the pandemic.
Our NHS will have to work through a long
backlog of operations and treatment, our
schools will have to catch our children
up after a year of disrupted education
and our council services will have to look
after the most vulnerable people in our
society and continue to support local
economies. While we need to account for
the spending decisions made to get us
through coronavirus, our public services
also need to be supported to recover with
growing public spending over the next
five years. We are committed to tackling
Scottish Government waste, but these
efficiency savings should be reinvested.
The UK Government has delivered £13.3
billion in additional funding for Scottish
public services since the pandemic
began. This is on top of the Union already
being worth nearly £2,000 in additional
public spending per head in Scotland.
Being part of the UK is essential for
supporting our public services to rebuild.
The SNP have made Scotland the highest
taxed part of the UK, ensuring that over 11
million Scottish workers, doing the same
job and earning the same wage, have less
money to spend than their counterparts in
England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is
unfair that Scots pay more in tax, especially
when we do not receive better services
because of SNP mismanagement. Put
simply, in Scotland we pay more to get less.
The Scottish Conservatives are Scotland’s
party of lower taxation. However, we also
recognise the uncertain fiscal situation and
the need to support our public services and
economy at this time. As such, funding our
recovery must come first. Tax cuts should
only be considered when we can afford
to do so. By the end of the Parliament,
we would seek to ensure that Scottish
taxpayers do not pay higher income tax
than those in the rest of the UK, while
retaining the starter rate for low earners.
Improving Scotland’s
transport links
Scotland needs the right transport
infrastructure in place to recover and
rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Connectivity is vital for enabling new
businesses to establish themselves in
Scotland, allowing existing businesses to
grow, attracting visitors and supporting
jobs across the country.
The SNP’s Infrastructure Investment
Plan lacks the ambition required to
support Scotland’s recovery and they
have a record of failure when it comes to
delivering major infrastructure projects -
from failed ferry procurement to delays
to key road and rail projects. The Scottish
Conservatives would put an end to this
inefficiency and ensure that planned
capital funding increases over the course
of the next Parliament are better spent
on projects which will improve Scotland’s
productivity and boost economic growth.
Improving connections between
Scotland’s main population centres will
attract investment and benefit surrounding
areas. Investing in infrastructure in rural
areas will connect communities and boost
tourism. To oversee this, the Infrastructure
Commission should be put on a statutory
footing and become accountable to the
Scottish Parliament. The Commission
should work with Regional Transport
Partnerships to produce long-term
infrastructure plans for their areas.
Scotland’s roads and railways connect
with England’s and investment in
cross-border infrastructure is vital. We
welcome the interim report of the Union
Connectivity Review and will work closely
with the UK Government to deliver its final
recommendations, as well as those of the
ongoing Williams Rail Review.
National transport infrastructure
Scotland’s roads, rail and ports require
significant ongoing investment to meet
the changing needs of our population and
achieve our environmental targets.
@ Upgrading Scotland’s roads
The SNP’s target to phase out new petrol
and diesel cars by 2032 will not be met
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unless action is stepped up now. An
ambitious new electric vehicle action plan
is required to take Scotland into the next
phase of the rolloutand deliver a complete
national charging infrastructure by 2025.
As well as public charging points, we would
continue to subsidise their installation in
homes and workplaces. We would also
review barriers and launch a new scheme
to support the installation of charging points
outside flats, and require all new large
developments to incorporate charging
points. Subsidies to make electric vehicles
more affordable to consumers must also
continue, including for used vehicles.
The transition to electric vehicles is a
major shift, but one which still relies on
having a good road network. Several
key routes in Scotland are in desperate
need of improvement, including the A77
and A75, which are vital for ports in the
area, the A82 between Glasgow and
Inverness, the A90 between Dundee and
Aberdeen, the A96 between Aberdeen
and Inverness, and the A9 between Perth
and Inverness.
The entirety of the A1 in Scotland should
be upgraded to a dual carriageway, with
the Scottish and UK Governments working
together to ensure the road is fit for the
future. The M8 should be extended to
three lanes and work on a new road to
bypass the A83 Rest and Be Thankful
must begin immediately. An urgent
solution to ice forcing the Queensferry
Crossing to close must be in place by
the winter. All these projects will improve
links between Scotland’s major cities and
benefit areas on route.
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Local projects such as the Sheriffhall
flyover, a Dundee Northern Relief Road
and bridge maintenance in Aberdeenshire
should be taken forward by Regional
Transport Partnerships.
We also need to promote hydrogen-
powered vehicles - the Scottish
Conservatives would invest in this
infrastructure and carry out a feasibility
study on a ‘hydrogen network’ between
Aberdeen and Inverness.
@ Revitalising our railways
Rail is crucial for connecting communities
across Scotland and supporting tourism.
The 1960s Beeching cuts saw many of
Scotland’s iconic railways and stations
close, and the Scottish Conservatives
would carry out a comprehensive review
of such decisions. Where there is an
economic case for it, we would reopen
rail lines and stations to support local
growth. Work to improve rail links
between Aberdeen and the Central Belt
needs to be accelerated, plans for a
direct line between Perth and Edinburgh
should be taken forward, the Highland
main line should be dualled and the
Scottish Government should work with
the UK Government to extend the Borders
Railway to Carlisle. Efforts to decarbonise
Scotland’s railways must be stepped up,
including the electrification of more lines.
Scotland’s rail delivery model must
prioritise improvements for passengers
and value for money for taxpayers, while
recognising that COVID-19 will have a
permanent impact on travel patterns.
To recognise this shift, the Scottish
Conservatives would introduce a flexible
season ticket to save money for workers
who are commuting for less than five
days a week and implement the Rail
Delivery Group’s wider recommendations
on fare regulation reform. We also
support pegging Scottish rail fares to the
Consumer Price Index instead of the Retail
Price Index to protect passengers.
Finally, we would introduce a Scottish
Smart Travel Card which would enable
passengers to use all types of domestic
transport anywhere in Scotland with one
contactless card. This would consolidate
concessions, ensure passengers pay the
cheapest fare and automatically refund
delayed or cancelled journeys.
@ Supporting the aviation industry
Scotland’s airports must be supported to
recover from the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on air travel, including the
maintenance of vital routes within the
UK. A clear roadmap for when and how
international travel can restart is essential,
alongside ongoing support for the sector
while restrictions remain in place. The
Scottish and UK Governments should
monitor the recovery of domestic flights
and consider the use of public service
obligations or the subsidy of airport
charges if any of Scotland’s key routes are
under threat.
We support maintaining parity with the rest
of the UK on Air Departure Tax.
@ Promoting Scotland’s ports
The Scottish Conservatives believe that
freeports present a unique opportunity
to boost Scottish exports and local
economies, particularly as oil revenues
decline, so we will support freeport bids
from ports across Scotland, including one
in the North East. We would also support
trust ports to submit joint bids, for freeport
status or other opportunities, while also
working to support all ports by reviewing
planning regulations, utilising enterprise
zones, incentivising diversification and
ensuring they benefit from the UK Shared
Prosperity Fund. To further support coastal
communities, we will prioritise them for
access to Community Investment Deal
funding.
Scotland’s ports and harbours play an
important role in our economy but also
provide vital transport connections for
Scotland’s island communities. The SNP
have repeatedly let these communities
down — allowing harbour infrastructure
and vessels to degrade, failing to improve
performance and overseeing the failed
procurement of two new ferries for
CalMac’s west coast routes. We would
scrap Caledonian Maritime Assets
and introduce long-term contracts for
ferry operators as part of a review of
island connectivity, aimed at simplifying
ferry services and ensuring they are as
sustainable, efficient and effective as
possible while also considering alternative
ways of connecting island communities.
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Local transport infrastructure
The state of local roads must be improved
to benefit all road users. The Scottish
Conservatives would invest £200 million
in a Road Maintenance Fund to repair
potholes over the course of the next
Parliament, through which councils can
bid for funding. We would also ensure
councils have the funding they need
to keep on top of road maintenance
by passing on increases in the Scottish
Government's capital funding to councils.
During the pandemic, the number of
people cycling and walking to work has
increased and we must take steps to
maintain this. Due to the changed context,
the Scottish Government’s 2030 active
travel ambition should be brought forward
to the end of the next Parliament. Over
the course of the next Parliament, we
would increase the share of the transport
budget which is spent on active travel to
10 per cent.
All local schemes must meet a range of
standards to ensure they are suitable
for buggies, wheelchair users and
older people, set by the Active Nation
Commissioner whose role should be put
ona statutory footing. Temporary schemes
implemented during the pandemic must
be evaluated and only maintained if they
have been effective. Councils should lead
post-COVID reviews of changed travel
patterns in their area and be encouraged
to create more low traffic neighbourhoods,
bus and bike only roads, school streets
and low emission zones where they
would be beneficial. By the end of the
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next Parliament, every city in Scotland
should have a cycle network designed
for commuting. In 2021, we would invest
£1 million in cycle proficiency training
for adults and cycle repair vouchers
to encourage more people to take up
cycling.
Active travel should sit alongside a strong
public transport system in every part of
Scotland. Rural bus routes have been
in decline for years, and the pandemic
has accelerated this. To address gaps in
bus services, the Scottish Conservatives
would implement provisions in the 2019
Transport Act to allow local councils to
propose bus services in their area. We
would also review the role of Regional
Transport Partnerships in the delivery
of transport services, with an ambition
to develop more integrated transport
networks.
To help achieve emissions targets, we
would develop a long-term transition
strategy to give operators the confidence
to invest in hydrogen and electric
buses. This would include a multi-year
commitment to the Ultra-Low Emission
Bus Scheme and making loans and leases
available from the Scottish Government.
Alongside this, a scrappage scheme
should be launched to encourage
operators and local authorities to upgrade
their buses. Accessibility for disabled
passengers should be a condition for
receiving support for any new routes or
transition plans.
Rebuilding our communities
The Scottish Conservatives believe
that every part of Scotland and every
community should be backed to succeed.
We believe that decisions are best made
as close as possible to the people who
are affected by them and that choice
and variation of approach between
communities is a national strength, nota
weakness.
However, 14 years of SNP Government
has seen centralisation and uniformity
prioritised over localism. Their centralisation
agenda has resulted in many communities
across our nation being left behind and
suffering from underinvestment. They
ignore local objections and raid the
budgets of local services. They are the
party of Yes Scotland, not the party of all of
Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives understand
the link between strong local economies,
good council services and a vibrant
community. We will respect local decision
making and ensure that local services get
the funding they deserve. We will stand
up for the interests of all parts of Scotland
and support every village, town and city to
rebuild.
Fairly funding our local services
and empowering councils
Our councils are responsible for
maintaining our roads, educating our
children, disposing of our waste and
maintaining public buildings and leisure
facilities. They are an essential component
of government and ensure that local
solutions are delivered for local problems
rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
However, the SNP have stripped our
councils of powers and funding. They
have raided local government budgets to
finance their own pet projects. From 2007
to 2019, the Scottish Government’s budget
increased at more than double the rate of
the grant they gave to councils. While the
Barnett Formula ensures that the Scottish
Government’s budget is linked to UK
Government spending, there is no such
protection for local government and the
services they run.
That is why the Scottish Conservatives
would bring forward a Communities
Bill to introduce fair funding for our
councils. This would deliver a new
financial framework that ensures councils
automatically receive a set percentage
of the Scottish Government budget each
year, mirroring the relationship the Scottish
Government has with the UK Government.
This would prevent the Scottish
Government from underfunding councils
and local services by failing to pass on
increases in its own budget. We would
ensure that councils have full control over
the funding they receive through this
framework.
However, fair funding is just the start of
empowering councils. We also need
to ensure proper protections for local
decision making. In 2019, four in ten
planning decisions appealed to SNP
ministers had their original decision from
the council overturned. That means
hundreds of developments going ahead
on the instruction of an SNP Government
in Edinburgh against the wishes of
communities and local representatives
across the country. This is a clear SNP
power grab.
We would amend planning laws, so that
the Scottish Government cannot overturn
a local planning decision. This would
ensure that major developments require
engagement with communities and that
national infrastructure needs to deliver
clear local benefits to those that will be
affected by it.
Community-led growth
As we rebuild our economy from the
devastating impact of coronavirus, we
must back every single community
across Scotland to succeed. The Scottish
Conservatives believe that where you
live should not limit your opportunities.
Everyone deserves to be able to get a
good job without having to leave the
community that they grew up in or have
built their life in.
However, under the current SNP
Government, parts of our country have
not seen the investment they deserve.
We would deliver a programme of
Community Investment Deals, worth up
to £25 million each, to create good local
jobs. Our initial £550 million investment
in these Deals would be tailored to
the existing strengths of a local area
and would look to leverage additional
investment from the UK Government,
21
councils and local employers, following
the existing City and Region Deal model.
The Scottish Conservatives believe
that we should do all that we can to
remove geographic discrimination across
Scotland. We have long campaigned
against households and businesses in
remote and rural parts of Scotland having
to pay higher delivery charges. We would
work with the UK Government to make
it illegal to charge higher costs when
posting to remote and rural parts of
Scotland.
We would also support the operation and
formation of co-operative enterprises and
mutual banking as communities recover
from the pandemic.
Restoring our town centres and
high streets
Our town centres and high streets have
been hit hardest by the coronavirus
22
pandemic. Yet many of them have been
struggling for the last 14 years, with many
major brands moving to out of town sites
or online. Under the SNP, every year we
see more and more local businesses
shutting up shop for good on our high
streets.
To rebuild our communities from this
pandemic, we need to tackle the long-
standing problems which have emptied
our high streets and undermined local
businesses. We need to look at how
we transform our high streets into
experiences, where people go to eat,
do activities and shop. Services were
originally driven to the high streets on
account of the footfall from shops, we now
need to use those services to re-engage
communities with local shopping.
To make them more competitive, we
would support our councils to exempt high
street and town centres from paying any
business rates. We would also provide
full funding for councils to scrap parking
charges on publicly-owned car parks to
encourage more people to support our
high streets to recover.
Closed shutters and ‘to let’ signs are
a blight on our town centres and high
streets, a reminder of their decline.
To tackle this, we would support
communities’ ‘first right to buy’ when local
businesses are facing closing their doors.
To increase footfall in our town centres
and turn them into places where people
live, we would also relax planning laws to
allow for the re-development of long-term
unoccupied business properties into good
quality housing.
We know the positive effect that green
spaces can have, not only on the
environment but also on people’s mental
and physical health. This has never
been so visible as during lockdown.
Therefore, we want to expand communal
green spaces so that people who don’t
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have access to private gardens can still
enjoy green spaces. To achieve this,
we will work with councils to redevelop
brownfield sites in the centre of large
towns and cities as new park areas, as
part of a new national public gardens
strategy.
New housing with new services
Scotland will need tens of thousands
of new homes over the next five years.
However, we know that new housing
developments put pressure on existing
local services like roads, schools and
shops. Far too many villages, towns and
cities in Scotland have seen new housing
estates created, with little thought of
how this will impact on essential local
infrastructure. In our rush to build new
housing, we have failed to build new
communities.
The SNP have consistently failed to
achieve their housing targets - they
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promised 50,000 affordable homes over
this Parliament but have delivered fewer
than 40,000. The Scottish Conservatives
believe that we need to set ambitious
housebuilding targets for the next
Parliament to deliver the homes that
Scotland needs. That is why we would
deliver 60,000 new affordable homes,
with two thirds of these being new
social housing. We will aim to increase
overall house building across all sectors
to 25,000 per year by the end of the
Parliament. To support building and
renovations in remote and rural parts
of Scotland, we will invest £50 million
through the Rural Housing Fund.
Scotland has an ageing population, so
there is an ever-increasing need for
housing to be accessible. This issue
is compounded by a lack of disabled
housing, with the number of people with a
disability on council waiting lists doubling
in the last two years. We will encourage
the future proofing of new-build housing
for easier accessibility adaptations. To
help older people stay in their homes
for longer, we will work with councils to
ensure the adequate delivery of care and
repair services across Scotland.
We welcome the report of the cross-
party Tenement Maintenance Working
Group and will look to deliver on its
recommendations in the next Parliament,
to keep tenements safe, energy efficient
and well maintained.
Delivering energy efficiency in homes
is an essential part of achieving our net
zero target. The Scottish Conservatives
amended the Fuel Poverty Act so that the
Scottish Government will have to support
all fuel-poor households to reach EPC C
by 2030. A drive to renovate homes could
create thousands of jobs across Scotland,
while also ensuring we meet our climate
change targets.
To achieve this ambition, we would
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spend over £2.5 billion over the next
five years on energy efficiency in homes
and buildings. We would also create a
Help to Renovate scheme, to support
owners making their properties more
energy efficient and set aside a specific
Rural Transition Fund to support energy
efficiency in off grid areas.
We recognise that energy efficiency is
being held back in Scotland due to a skills
gap, especially in rural areas. We would
make delivering the skills necessary to
improve energy efficiency a key priority for
our skills programmes. To further improve
energy efficiency standards, we would
review and update the EPC system.
There are over 47,000 long-term
unoccupied properties in Scotland.
In many cases these properties are
dilapidated and have become a blight on
our communities. We would introduce
Compulsory Sales Orders for long-term
24
unoccupied properties in Scotland.
We will support housing associations
and consider new models for meeting
Scotland’s social housing needs. There
are 685 housing associations across the
UK but only 11 of these are in Scotland.
We would fund a pilot programme for
cooperative housing in Scotland.
However, we cannot just build housing -
we need to build communities. We need
to deliver proper town planning and the
services that people will use, so that new
housing is not a burden on those people
who already live in an area. This includes
shops, parks, public pathways, roads and
schools. We would work with councils to
more effectively secure investment in local
services from large home developments.
The Grenfell fire was a horrible tragedy
that showed how unsafe some of our
housing stock is. Safety experts have
raised concerns about the cladding used
in at least 85 high rise blocks and over
130 other buildings, including schools,
across Scotland. The SNP Government
has received £97 million in Barnett
Consequentials from a UK Government
scheme to remove unsafe cladding in
England but have so far failed to act. We
would follow other parts of the UK in
banning the use of combustible cladding
in Scotland. We would also undertake
an extensive audit to identify all buildings
where combustible cladding is used, not
just high-rise properties, and support
remedial work where it is needed.
Reducing the costs of buying a
home
Taxes on the buying and selling of
property in Scotland are among the
highest in the world. The SNP’s decision
to replace stamp duty with Land and
Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) in 2015
further increased costs on homebuyers.
In response to the pandemic, the SNP
Government increased the threshold at
which LBTT was paid to £250,000 last
year. However, in this year’s budget they
decided to drop the threshold back down
to £145,000, costing homebuyers an extra
£2,100 in tax per transaction.
We believe that everyone should have
the opportunity to own their home and
that our tax system should support
that ambition. That is why we would
permanently increase the threshold for
paying LBTT to £250,000, with the five
per cent band starting from that point as
it does now. This means that over three
quarters of home buyers will pay no tax at
all. We would also introduce this threshold
for non-residential property.
To take account of the variations in house
prices across Scotland, we would allow
councils to create their own local LBTT
discount schemes. We would also review
the Additional Dwelling Supplement to
ensure that families moving home are no
longer unfairly targeted by it.
The SNP’s decision to end Help to Buy will
damage the housing market and remove
vital support for those unable to afford the
full costs of buying a home. We will restore
funding for the Help to Buy scheme.
Our council tax system is outdated but
it is well understood and raises a stable
form of revenue with which to fund local
services. The SNP have promised reform
in four manifestos but failed to deliver it.
We believe that certainty and stability
are what families need right now. In
the absence of cross-party support for a
reform proposal we will not support any
overhaul or revaluation of the council
tax system over the next five years. It
will be for parties to build a consensus in
the next Parliament around a reformed
system and then put it to the Scottish
people in the next election.
The coronavirus pandemic and restrictions
have made us appreciate the value of
community and brought out the very
best in human kindness. More people
in Scotland are volunteering than ever
before, whether it is picking up shopping
for elderly neighbours who are shielding
or through national charities.
It is important that we do not allow
this community spirit to disappear - we
must utilise it to help rebuild Scotland
from this crisis. We will create a national
database to make it easier for people
across Scotland to find volunteering
opportunities in their local area and for
organisations to access willing volunteers.
To support voluntary sector organisations
to better deliver services, we will ensure
that those in receipt of national funding
receive multi-year settlements. Our new
fiscal framework will enable councils
to do the same for those in receipt of
local funding. This will ensure that the
third sector can get on with the job of
supporting vulnerable groups and our
communities with certainty, rather than
having to worry about funding each year.
Scotland has a strong cultural identity
which benefits all of our citizens and
attracts visitors from around the world.
25
However, our cultural institutions have
been hit hard by the pandemic and need
support to reopen.
To help music venues, heritage sites and
festivals recover, we will set up a £50
million Cultural Kick Start Fund. As part
of this, we will deliver a half price entry
programme for heritage sites for the
remainder of 2021.
We will also bring forward an Arts Bill
to ensure local authorities carry out a
minimum level of cultural planning and
engagement, provide a more sustainable
funding model and introduce measures
to ensure a fairer geographic spread of
resources.
The Gaelic language is one of Scotland’s
greatest cultural assets and we would
continue to promote and support it. We
would refresh the Gaelic Language Plan
this year with an ambition to increase the
number of Gaelic speakers.
Delivering a fair share for the
North East
The North East of Scotland used to be the
powerhouse of the Scottish economy but
under the SNP’s centralisation agenda,
it has been left unsupported as the oil
and gas industry has faced difficulties.
Taxes have been hiked on Aberdeen
and Aberdeenshire businesses and
key services like schools, GPs and the
police have seen cuts. At the same time,
Aberdeen Council receives the lowest
central funding grant from the SNP of any
council area.
26
The Scottish Conservatives believe that
the North East deserves a better, fairer
share from the Scottish Government.
We will support the economy of the North
East to get back on its feet. We will create
a North East enterprise agency to better
grow the economy of the region, backed
by £1 billion over the next ten years to
create jobs and opportunities. We will
also back the delivery of a freeport in the
North East.
As part of our fair funding settlement for
councils, we will ensure that the North
East is not penalised for having higher
council tax and business rates revenue
than anywhere else in Scotland. Local
taxes raised in the North East should
be used to fund schools, roads and
local services in the North East. We will
protect local services across the region
from centralisation, including re-opening
the Mulberry Unit at Stracathro, the minor
injury unit in Banff and Turriff and the Insch
community hospital.
We will upgrade and build new
infrastructure across the North East. We
will upgrade key roads by dualling the A96
between Aberdeen and Inverness and
improving the A90 at Laurencekirk and
Ellon. We will review the reopening of local
railways and stations if they will drive local
growth, like the Formartine and Buchan
Railway and Brechin and Newtonhill
stations. We will improve broadband and
mobile phone signal by beginning our
plan to roll out full fibre broadband in rural
and northern parts of our country.
Restoring world-class
Scottish education
Nicola Sturgeon asked to be judged on
her education record and said it was
her “number one priority”. On this basis,
the poor state of Scotland’s schools is a
damning indictment of her leadership.
Under the SNP, teacher numbers have
fallen, Scotland has slid down international
league tables, subject choice has declined
and the attainment gap has persisted.
Schools have been further let down
during the coronavirus pandemic. Remote
education was patchy, the 2020 exam
results were an unprecedented fiasco,
and not enough is being done to support
children to catch up. We must not allow
the SNP’s failures during the pandemic
to create a lost COVID generation.
Every child deserves the opportunity to go
to a good local school that is in a decent
condition and has enough teachers to
offer the range of subjects they need for
their future. Access to a good education
can be life changing and getting it right
for Scotland’s children now will prevent
the COVID-19 pandemic robbing them of
opportunities.
Equipping our young people with the
skills they need to succeed in a changing
global economy also benefits Scotland
as a whole. A well-educated population
supports economic growth, creates jobs
and improves productivity, while also
reducing poverty and inequality.
Restore our schools
The Scottish Conservatives believe a
knowledge-rich curriculum gives children
the best start in life. Experts have raised
concerns about the SNP’s Curriculum for
Excellence and the OECD are currently
reviewing it. The OECD review must be
published immediately after the election
- we would implement recommendations
which would restore standards in
Scotland’s schools.
The SNP have also asked the OECD to
review assessments and qualifications,
hinting that, after cancelling exams in 2020
and 2021, they would scrap them for good.
The Scottish Conservatives would oppose
this and support the continued use of
exams as they are the best way to equitably
assess the achievements of pupils.
We would also rejoin international studies
and comparisons including the TIMSS and
PIRLS rankings - we should learn from
other countries around the world instead
of shying away from comparisons.
Boosting the teaching workforce
Teachers are key to improving school
standards, but they are overstretched
and undersupported. The Scottish
Conservatives would review the quality
of teacher training and introduce a new
workforce strategy worth £550 million
to recruit 3,000 more teachers over the
course of the next Parliament. This would
support people with experience in sectors
such as STEM to start a new career in
teaching and create a Rural Teacher Fund
to attract teachers to work in rural areas.
In addition, the recommendations of the
Independent Panel on Career Pathways
for Teachers should be implemented to
improve retention and a review of the
use of supply teachers and part-time
contracts should be carried out to ensure
employment conditions do not result in
trained staff leaving the profession.
To improve participation in STEM
subjects, we would introduce a dedicated
STEM teacher in every primary school.
Increasing teacher numbers would
improve subject choice and reduce class
sizes and the need for composite classes.
This would allow us to introduce a ‘subject
guarantee’ to students — a commitment
that everyone will be able to take at least
seven subjects in S4.
Fair funding for our schools
Ensuring schools have the funding,
buildings and equipment they need is also
key to improving standards.
School funding is allocated by councils —
Scottish Conservative plans to introduce
a fair funding formula to pass increases
to the Scottish Government’s revenue
27
budget on to councils will ensure
adequate funding is available for schools
in every part of Scotland.
In addition to their fair share of revenue
funding, schools also need sufficient capital
funding. Over 10 per cent of Scottish schools
are in Poor or Bad condition, leaving over
60,000 children in sub-standard classrooms.
Our plans to also pass on increases in
the Scottish Government’s capital budget
to councils would help them to maintain
existing school buildings, and we would
ensure all promised funding for new
buildings is allocated by September 2021 so
work can begin as soon as possible. These
steps would ensure every child is learning
in a suitable local school building by the
end of the next Parliament.
Improving school standards
The final key to improving school standards
is inspection and accountability. We would
establish a new independent school
inspector that would report directly to the
Scottish Parliament. It would inspect schools
regularly, ensuring they are no longer left
for over a decade without inspection, hold
local authorities to account for the standard
of their schools, and monitor and publish
impartial data on school standards across
Scotland. In addition, the new inspectorate
would enforce the requirement for schools
to be politically neutral.
Clear inspection ratings should continue
to be given to inform parents and support
schools to improve. Schools which
struggle to improve would receive direct
intervention from the new inspectorate and
28
innovation would be encouraged to boost
school improvement. We would introduce
an annual £1 million Somerville Fund to
recognise individual schools who have
developed innovative practice and enable
them to share it within their local area.
Tackling inequality
Closing the attainment gap is vital if we are
to give every child in Scotland the same
opportunity to succeed. Despite being in
charge of Scotland’s schools for 14 years,
the SNP have failed to close this gap.
The Scottish Conservatives would improve
the way in which attainment funding is
allocated and spent. We would work with
experts to develop a more accurate way
of measuring deprivation amongst school
children. The current Attainment Scotland
Fund is split into multiple pots which are
allocated and distributed in different
ways — we would introduce a new multi-
year commitment to allocate £1 billion of
attainment funding directly to all schools
over the course of the next Parliament,
based on the level of deprivation amongst
their pupils. We would develop a menu of
evidence-based interventions, including
tutoring, for schools to inform how they
choose to spend attainment funding in the
way that works best for their local community.
In addition to interventions in the
classroom, the Scottish Conservatives
would immediately introduce free school
breakfasts and lunches for all children in
primary and special schools. We would also
support continued provision for eligible
children during the school holidays.
JU] oy oLoyatiavemetali(elg-yamce)
catch up
COVID-19 has had a devastating
impact on our children’s learning. While
disadvantaged pupils have been worst
affected, every single child has been
impacted and a long-term system-wide
fo)celeleslanlnarom Su axe[6lic-xem com al=)omigt=van
catch up.
We would invest £120 million in a
two-year catch-up premium, allocated
directly to schools on a per pupil basis.
Evidence-based guidance on the most
effective interventions for each year
(e]co)0] oma e)0] (eM ol=m o)fe)(e(-1¢ Ko N= yas] 0) (=)
schools to spend this funding well. We
would also set up a £4 million Transition
m0 la\emKoe\0)0)ole)amelal|(elc=amsic-]ai ale)
primary or secondary school in 2021.
Further targeted support is required
Ico) me|ists(e\/s] alt= le [=vemm e)6) oy] SmYValeM ale NVi=
been hit hardest by school closures.
The Scottish Conservatives would
set up a £35 million national tutoring
programme to provide one-to-one or
Jaare]|me]cole/ommelii(o)amco)meiali(ela=vam vale)
need the most help to catch up.
(@1 al ilelc=laksmant=1alts]mYii=)ileX=i ale atslsirs] sxe)
been impacted by the pandemic. As an
immediate response, we would invest
Pxomanliielamiamste(elii(eyare] merslialine mole
Yel stole) e=)k-) ims] a(em ale) |si4(oms1e] ©) oleae mice)an)
specialist mental health charities. Over
the course of this Parliament, trained
mental health leads with links to
NHS mental health teams should be
introduced in every school.
adel ey MU damstelelid(eyar=)
10] 0) ole) am al=t=1e
(© nlilelc=ta Mw ilsams\e(ellt(o)at=] R16) ©) ofe)am a(=\-1e ls)
are being let down by the SNP.
[OU] mer-)colahejome)c=vanllelaamuele) (eM ot=
NiV=¥(e]alkexe komo) ce\Vi(e(-manelc-mielaleline mies
(ol ali(elc=yamnviiiams(e(e|ii(o)ars)] e=16) 0) ofe)amal=\-1e ion
accompanied by bespoke advice on
the most effective interventions for
them. We would also implement the
ic=xexo)anlant=salele}i(e)a\sMe)mualom cy (=) make)
rele [o)ii(oyat=]es1e) 0) eXe)amielm(=ts]ealiale malar!
continue to grow the support staff
workforce - including by improving
(l=) t= mee) | (=rellle)ae)amial=mexe)an]efey-jii(e lake) i
this vital workforce and formalising the
role of pupil support assistants.
We would ensure initial teacher
training fully prepares all teachers
oN (e(=Jalii vars] ale m1) 0) elea mel ali(elc=sa Mulia)
conditions such as dyslexia and
Fe] Uh aicjan bw -\(olarelsy(el=minale)ce)ialemelts\e]alessiis)
pathways, these measures would
help ensure children and families who
ix=1e[U]1n=m (WA (=V{=)mi0] ©) 8Le)a ma 1k=m= 19) (=m Ke)
get the help they need. For those who
lats\om nnlelc=mexo)nn) @)(=> @at=t=re SMa om UII
ensure there is sufficient capacity in
specialist provision and work closely
NZitgln satu tall ce bc\-ceicolars] are melali (ele lare!
adolescent mental health services to
ensure the right support is in place.
Supporting children’s
wellbeing
Beyond education, schools also play a
crucial role in supporting the health and
wellbeing of children and young people.
Issues such as nutrition and climate
responsibility should be embedded within
the curriculum from an early age. Schools
must also be supported to provide older
children with the most effective information
on drugs, alcohol, smoking and sexual
health, including by introducing dedicated
PSHE teachers in all schools. Schools
should emphasise the importance of
respect, tolerance and equality in an age
appropriate way to prevent bullying, racism,
homophobia and misogyny.
All children should be able to take part
in creative subjects and activities such
as music and sport both during and after
the school day. As a basic right, we must
ensure every child has the opportunity to
play an instrument, learn a language and
play a sport at school:
@ We would ensure instrumental music
teachers can access GTCS registration
and accreditation and make music
education a core part of the curriculum
to ensure lessons are available to all
students free of charge.
@ We will fully implement the commitment
to teach children two additional
languages and develop a new strategy
to increase the number of students
studying languages in the senior
phase of secondary school, as well as
supporting Gaelic education in areas of
historic prevalence where pupils and
parents wish to learn.
@ To improve PE provision within schools,
we would review the physical education
training which teachers receive and
introduce specialist PE teachers in
primary schools by the end of the next
Parliament.
Outside school, extracurricular activities
like music lessons and sports clubs are
often only available to families who can
afford them, meaning disadvantaged
children miss out. After school activities
also provide essential childcare for
working parents. We would introduce
free wraparound childcare for children
in Primary 1-3, equivalent to five hours a
week, and work with schools and local
community groups to build capacity and
create choice for parents.
To help children and young people
recover from the disruption of COVID-19
and ensure those from deprived
backgrounds can access the same
experiences as their peers, we will ensure
that all children have the opportunity
to participate in at least one week of
residential outdoor education in their
school career. These experiences have
proven to be life-changing in terms of
building confidence and self-esteem.
Progression from school
To support young people with subject
and course choices, we would accelerate
the ongoing review into careers advice
and ensure it is focused on long-term
employability, not just an immediate
positive destination.
29
To put this ethos into practice, we would
replace the current school leaving age of
16 with a new skills participation age of
18. We would introduce paid internships
for every S4 pupil, make foundation
apprenticeships available in every school
and review the options available for young
people at SVQ Level 4.
We would support Scottish universities to
maintain their world-leading reputation
and improve access for Scottish students,
including by continuing to provide free
university tuition and introducing a special
support payment for students in receipt of
benefits.
To rebalance the relationship between
academic and vocational education,
we would launch a review of the post-
18 education landscape in Scotland.
In the interim, we would ensure all
Apprenticeship Levy funds are spent
on apprenticeships, remove limits on
the number of funded apprenticeships
available and guarantee off-the-job
training for apprentices aged under 25.
Scotland’s colleges are central to our
economic recovery so new regional
taskforces should be set up to bring together
education agencies with local businesses to
ensure the right skills are in place — working
with new economic development agencies
in every region. In each region, we would
also support employers, universities and
colleges to come together to establish
Institutes of Technology to deliver modular
courses and higher-level technical training in
specialist areas.
In addition, we would work with the
sector to develop a national student
mental health action plan for universities,
colleges and apprenticeship providers
— coordinating services and addressing
disparities in the support available to
different types of students.
YU) o) ofolatiavemetali(elgsya
& families
The 1,001 days between
conception and a child’s
second birthday have more
influence on their future than
any other time in their life.
To ensure every child has the
best start, we would support
the continued review and
(o[=\V{=1(o)o)ant=1nl mem ial=MOl al \Y=1este]|
health visiting service. In
addition, Family Nurse
Partnerships must be available
for young mothers in all areas
of Scotland and expanded
to support more vulnerable
women aged 20 and over.
We would pilot the use of
Family Hubs to bring health,
education and social care
services together and provide
a ‘one stop shop’ of parenting
10] e) efe)amceymvellal=1¢s]0)(=melare)
(el [stale \We]altsle(cvemelall(ele=an
Improving access to
early years education
Early years education is crucial
omel\inem=\-1avaeunl (em igt=m ef-s)
start. We would take action to
latelg=rc}s{=m6] ©) fs] <>me)mig(=Mol0)0)
iate}U|s-Me) mlb |arel=celKelall Ce [era] =)
fe\ fe} t=] 8) (=m Keel istale Vela ralel are]
two-year-olds. The 1,140 hours
Coy Ulave(=te Medal i(eletele-Moleelnal ite]
to all 3- and 4-years-olds
anleim ol-Mialigete(U(x-vomiaWAUelelUiig
2021 without any further delay
fe] ate anlUiime(= |=) mal =mel ale)(e=)
promised to parents. All parents
who choose to defer their
(ol ali(olsjk-] adi atom ola iantclavasveateye)|
i} afo)] (el of= ma] 0)(-mconee)aliiale(=
to access funded childcare
from August 2021. We would
also invest £1 million in early
Fe}ate]Urc\etoms10] 0) ofe)aminlioMyors] 6
ico)me|ist-le\ Ze ]aitee[=xemelali(elcsaiels
nursery to reduce the ‘word
gap’ before they start school.
edacogiiciiare Ketall(elc=le ks
YoYel f=] Metz] =)
While every effort should be
inats(e(=mKe mie) 0) ofe)ami- lanl l(=ssmKe)
remain together, we must
ensure Scotland has a strong
care system for when this is not
possible. Kinship care should
always be supported if it is an
(o)o)ifoyamnco)m (ele) <srem- IK menli(elt(oap
The recommendations of the
Independent Care Review
must be implemented in full
and on time by delivering The
Promise. To further support
those in foster care, we would
ice)| KoyU jm igt=m \y(olel-diate]e)ige!
Programme across Scotland to
Jo)0)|(e R=16] ©) oe) ath -mexo)nnlanlelalii(ass
around foster families. We
would also implement a register
of foster carers to further
professionalise the sector.
A review into the barriers to
adopting should be carried
out and all support available
son (oXe) <-te = )i\=1merall(elc=1amarele] (e|
remain in place for those
who are adopted. We would
maintain the Care Experienced
Bursary for students and pilot
similar support for estranged
students. We support the Wave
70/30 ambition to reduce
adverse childhood experiences.
Supporting our NHS
The NHS is a cherished institution which
is central to our British values. For over 70
years it has cared for us, from the cradle
to the grave, and it has continued to do
so throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,
despite the risks and challenges faced by
staff every day.
COVID-19 hospital admissions have
reduced significantly from their peak, but
the NHS still faces the most challenging
period in its history. The vaccination
programme is ongoing, many people
are being affected by long COVID,
thousands of appointments, treatments
and operations have been postponed,
and the peak of the mental health impact
of the pandeniic is still ahead. The Scottish
Conservatives will focus on supporting the
?
a
‘.
e
4
==
i i
Haroun Malik,
= candidate for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth
NHS to rebuild and recover.
We remain committed to the founding
principles of the NHS — universal,
comprehensive, and free at the point of
use — and would protect NHS funding by
enshrining a ‘double lock’ in legislation
guaranteeing that the NHS budget will
increase by Barnett consequentials or 2
per cent more than inflation, whichever
is highest, in every year of the next
Parliament. Based on current estimates
this would result in an overall increase in
annual funding of at least £2 billion by
2025-26.
On top of annual funding increases, we
would provide an additional £600 million
to tackle the NHS backlog in 2021-22.A
major clinician-led prioritisation exercise
must be carried out to ensure those in
most need get seen first. Outpatients
appointments and elective surgery must
be available seven days a week, with
remote consultations offered where
appropriate. We would speed up the
delivery of Early Cancer Diagnostic
Centres and prioritise boosting the
diagnostic workforce, which is key to
tackling the ‘hidden backlog’ of those
who are yet to be referred due to the
pandemic. A sustained and targeted
campaign should be launched to
encourage people who have been putting
off visiting their GP to come forward, with
a focus on preventing health inequalities
worsening.
Recognising NHS staff
Immediate action to support staff retention
is required. We would work to agree a
new multi-year pay deal for Agenda
for Change staffas well as doctors and
dentists. We would invest an additional
£40 million in staff wellbeing this year,
including rest facilities and mental health
services, and fully establish a Scottish
Workforce Specialist Service to provide
ongoing mental health support to NHS
and social care staff. Staff who have left
the NHS should continue to be supported
to return to the health service, while all
staff who are approaching retirement
should be offered opportunities to alter
their roles instead of leaving. The Scottish
and UK Government should work together
to address the pension taxation issues
preventing senior consultants from
working extra shifts.
31
To address long-term recruitment issues,
a comprehensive approach to overseeing
workforce planning for the whole of NHS
Scotland, in every profession and at
every level, is required and accurate data
must be available to underpin planning
assumptions. Medical school training
places should be increased in line with
forecasted future need. Priority should be
given to Scottish domiciled students, and
access and graduate entry programmes
should be promoted. More flexibility is
also required during the early stages of
doctors’ careers to improve retention.
To support the wider NHS workforce,
safe staffing legislation should be
fully inplemented to ensure clinical
involvement in staffing decisions and
clear processes for concerns to be
raised. Nursing student places should
be increased and steps should be taken
to widen access and improve student
retention. Workforce planning should
aim to create the correct skill mix and
utilise allied health professionals to their
maximum potential.
Providing cutting-edge local
healthcare
Local hospitals and health services have
been neglected by the SNP, who have
broken promises and let down local
communities. We would introduce a
Local Healthcare Guarantee to restore a
presumption against centralisation and
protect local services. We would take
immediate action to replace Edinburgh’s
Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion and
reinstate consultant-led maternity services
32
Douglas at Dr Gray’s after
ivat=mo)igtae)malcesve)al
at Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin.
We would also review the formula which
allocates funding to local health boards to
ensure it recognises local need.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a
rapid increase in the use of technology by
the NHS. Positive examples of innovation
should be adopted permanently as part of
a ‘digital choice’ approach — accessing
some health services online will be helpful
for many, particularly in rural areas, but it
will never be suitable for everyone.
Technology has a particularly significant
role to play in the management of long-
term conditions as it can help to maintain
independence and reduce hospital
appointments and admissions. We would
encourage the use of home healthcare
technologies, like smart inhalers, and pilot
innovative services such as nurse-led
clinics for people with conditions including
diabetes, COPD and heart disease to
improve their quality of life and reduce
the need for secondary care. We would
also ensure patients with life-changing
conditions are able to access specialist
support at home following discharge from
hospital if they need it, to enable them to
adapt and regain independence.
Cancer services have been severely
impacted by the pandemic — while the
immediate focus must be on restarting
services, long-term plans to improve
cancer diagnosis and care are also
required. We would publish an updated
full cancer strategy, including a national
cancer genomic testing pilot.
Long COVID is a new challenge for
the NHS — ongoing research must be
coordinated across the UK and specialist
clinics should be set up in every health
board to support patients.
Prioritising primary care
GPs are a central part of Scotland’s health
service — they are embedded in their
communities and know their patients best.
The Scottish Conservatives would support
GPs by investing at least 11 per cent of
the overall NHS budget into general
practice by the end of the next Parliament,
increasing training places to deliver the 800
more GPs promised by 2027 and ensuring
all GPs are supported by a multidisciplinary
team. This would enable GPs to offer longer
appointments to those who need them. GPs
must also have access to the technology
they need to deliver high quality remote
care when required.
Pharmacies also provide vital local
healthcare on our high streets and should
be supported to deliver more services.
To maximise the role they can play, we
, IF
would train more independent prescribers
to enable pharmacists to treat a wider
range of common conditions which would
otherwise need to be treated by a GP.
Pharmacists must also have full access to
patients’ medical records and IT systems
which link them to wider health and care
services, and e-prescribing must be more
widely adopted. The Medicines Care
and Review Service must be promoted
to all patients with long-term or multiple
conditions.
GPs and pharmacies must also have
clear routes to refer people to other local
sources of support. Social prescribing
must be embedded in primary care,
including by rolling out Community Link
Workers and links to advice services more
widely.
Revolutionising mental health
Scotland’s mental health support services
were under pressure before the COVID-19
pandemic and now face immense
challenges.
The Scottish Conservatives would
increase mental health funding to 10
per cent of the frontline health budget
during the next Parliament. We would
kickstart a permanent shift towards
community mental health services
by expanding programmes such as
cognitive behavioural therapy, social
prescribing, exercise referral schemes
and peer support. These services would
be available through community triage
centres in order to offer people with mild
to moderate mental health problems
support within six weeks. To address more
serious mental health issues, we would
develop a Self-Harm Strategy and work
with stakeholders to update the Suicide
Action Plan. To help ensure the right
services are available in the right places,
we would improve the use of data and
develop a comprehensive multi-agency
workforce plan.
33
Improving Scotland’s
public health
Under the SNP, Scotland has become
the ‘sick man of Europe’ with poor
public health outcomes and stark health
inequalities which have left too many
people vulnerable to COVID-19. Public
health must now be prioritised to reduce
health inequalities and rising pressures
on the NHS. A cross-portfolio approach
is required to tackle the causes of poor
health and address the links between
economic and health inequalities.
To kickstart action to improve Scotland’s
public health, we would launch a national
campaign this summer to encourage
people to develop and maintain healthy
habits as lockdown restrictions are
relaxed.
@ Encouraging a healthy diet & exercise
Improving Scotland’s diet is key to
improving public health. Our plans to
introduce free school meals and breakfast
clubs for all primary pupils and ensure the
importance of good nutrition is embedded
in the curriculum will help teach children
how to make healthy choices. Our
‘Scotland First’ procurement policy would
encourage public services to prioritise local
healthy food. We would also develop a new
National Food Strategy to promote local
produce. We would ensure that ongoing
support for the hospitality sector includes
a focus on promoting local healthy food,
and invest in weight management services
and other positive initiatives to help people
maintain a healthy weight.
We would ensure local councils have the
guidance and powers they need to utilise
planning and licensing policy to create
healthy environments which promote
healthier food options and physical activity.
We would also encourage physical
activity by making it more accessible.
Lockdown restrictions have emphasised
the importance of access to green
space for exercise — we would launch a
new public gardens strategy, including
significant investment in developing
brownfield sites into new green spaces.
We would increase spending on active
travel, bring forward targets and boost
the powers of the Active National
Commissioner. Employers also have a
vital role to play in encouraging physical
activity, so we would pilot public sector
employers offering dedicated breaks and
opportunities to be active.
Improving access to community leisure
facilities is an essential part of increasing
rates of physical activity, but they are in
a precarious position following years of
SNP underinvestment and the devastating
impact of the pandemic. We would ensure
leisure facilities are embedded in COVID
recovery and local regeneration plans,
deliver fair funding for councils to support
facilities and develop a national strategy
to protect assets. We would also invest
£1 million to support more schools to
open their facilities to the public during
evenings and weekend.
Elite sport can inspire grassroot
participation, so as international
competitions resume, we must ensure
Scottish athletes are able to continue
representing their country on the world
stage. We would double SportScotland’s
budget over the course of the next
Parliament to fund grassroots and elite
sport, supporting our athletes and training
the next generation.
Football in particular is woven into the
fabric of Scottish society and plays a
vital role in every community. We would
back the UK’s bid to host the 2030
World Cup and bid to hold the final in
Scotland, as well as developing a Road to
2030 strategy for grassroots football. We
would also support a review of football
governance in Scotland to ensure it is
inclusive and fully representative of all
levels of the game.
@ Reducing rates of smoking, drug use
and problematic drinking
Beyond diet and exercise, we must also
tackle Scotland’s stubbornly high smoking
rates, which are underpinned by economic
inequalities — one in three people smoke
in Scotland’s most deprived communities
compared to 1 in 10 in the least deprived.
Greater action is needed to achieve the
2034 target to reduce smoking rates to
5 per cent, including an ambitious new
strategy and increased enforcement
of existing regulations. The use of
e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products
must be monitored closely and regulated
in the same way as cigarettes. We would
maintain funding for smoking prevention
and cessation services, while ensuring
tackling inequalities is at the heart of all
interventions.
35
Drug deaths have reached a record
high in Scotland — a shameful sign of the
SNP’s failed drugs policy. The Scottish
Conservatives secured an additional
£20 million a year for residential
rehabilitation services, but more action
is needed to turn the tide. We would ask
the Drugs Death Taskforce to publish a
comprehensive review into the provision
of drug treatment and recovery services
before the end of the year. Our focus
would be ensuring rehab is available to
everyone who needs it when they need it,
prioritising abstinence-based programmes
and improving retention rates.
We must also tackle problematic levels
of alcohol consumption. We would work
with the sector to roll out the inclusion of
low risk drinking guidelines on alcohol
packaging and support local communities
to engage with the licensing system. We
would carry out a review of Scotland’s
alcohol services — prevention, early
identification and intervention must be
prioritised, while data must be improved
to ensure that anyone with an alcohol
problem, or at risk of developing one, can
access treatment and recovery services,
wherever they live and whatever their
circumstances.
Reforming social care
A roadmap for the full return of care home
visiting must be published and an urgent
inquiry into the handling of care homes
during the pandemic must commence
immediately.
36
The Feeley Review into Adult Social Care
is welcome — action is required to address
the historic underfunding of the sector and
ensure it is prepared to care for Scotland’s
ageing population.
We support many of the recommendations
and principles set out in the review,
including introducing national employment
conditions for staff and viewing the social
care system as an equal partner to the
NHS, while adopting a person-centred
approach which empowers supported
people and their carers. However, we
share COSLA’s concerns about the
proposed governance and accountability
changes which would lead to significant
centralisations.
We would maintain local democratic
accountability of the social care system
and avoid any unnecessary structural
reforms. We believe local authorities are
best able to deliver high-quality person-
centred social care as part of a whole-
system approach, particularly as they
deliver other vital services upon which
supported people rely. We would work
with councils, families and providers to
take forward reforms which will embed
choice and put adult social care ona
sustainable footing.
As part of this, we would ensure that
Scotland’s social care system works
for those who have a terminal illness.
Conditions like MND progress rapidly
and we can no longer allow people to
die while still waiting for the support
they need. Fast-tracking of support and
adaptations and the use of anticipatory
planning are essential for those with a
terminal diagnosis.
We would also fully implement Frank’s
Law, which the Scottish Conservatives
brought to Parliament, and ensure
adequate support is in place for people
with dementia and their families. We
would review the expansion of post-
diagnostic support and ensure everyone
with advanced dementia receives an
individual assessment of their health
and care needs. We would also review
what changes are required to to ensure
personal and nursing care payments
sufficiently cover the cost of care. We
would increase investment in dementia
research and work to raise awareness.
We would develop a new national plan
for palliative care to ensure everyone can
access the support they need whether
they die in hospital, a hospice, a care
home or at home. In addition, we would
maintain funding for children’s hospices
and support the Bereavement Charter for
Scotland to ensure all bereaved families
can access the practical and emotional
support they need.
==
——_
candidate for Glasgow Provan
~ Annie Wells, /
Tackling crime & putting
victims first
The SNP have failed to prioritise local
policing, protect victims or properly punish
criminals in Scotland. Their failures have
enabled violent crime to increase and left
victims without the justice they deserve.
In contrast, the Scottish Conservatives
have demonstrated that we are tough
on crime and will support the police and
prioritise victims. We will work to address
the causes of crime while also ensuring
that, once a crime is committed, the
offender is punished properly and the
victim receives the support they deserve.
More local policing
Since the SNP’s police merger, 681
frontline officers have been cut and over
100 police stations have been closed. The
local impact of national policy decisions
is not being properly considered and
fewer officers are on the street. We
would introduce a Local Policing Act to
guarantee a strong police presence in our
communities and enable more community
input in policing decisions, including by
reinstating police scrutiny boards across
Scotland. We must ensure more officers
are on the streets instead of backfilling
office vacancies by adequately investing
in support staff. We would support special
constables and review their remuneration.
We would also provide the full amount
of capital funding which Police Scotland
requested this year to invest in proper IT
systems and the buildings and vehicles
they need to operate effectively.
38
As well as funding the police properly,
we must protect them from harm. The
Scottish Conservatives led the campaign
to implement Finn’s Law to increase the
punishment for harming service animals. We
have also proposed doubling the maximum
sentence for assaulting emergency
workers. We would support the rollout of
body worn cameras to frontline officers, as
they are a vital tool to reduce violence and
provide evidence for prosecutions.
Tougher sentencing & justice for
victims
The SNP have effectively scrapped
short prison sentences of less than
twelve months and failed to deliver
effective community sentences. The
Scottish Conservatives would revoke
the presumption against short prison
sentences and strengthen community
sentences to ensure they all include
unpaid work and are completed in full. We
would also pilot more intensive types of
community sentences. We would double
the maximum fines police can issue for
anti-social behaviour.
We would introduce ‘honest sentencing’ to
ensure sentences given are the sentences
served. To implement this, we would
end automatic early release and ensure
courts are upfront about the length of
sentences. We would also enable judges
to sentence the very worst criminals to
Whole Life Custody to ensure that life
really does mean life.
When criminals are released on licence,
we would increase the use of electronic
tags and ensure that anyone who has
breached their licence conditions once
is not allowed out on licence again.
Removing a tag should be an offence
and an automatic public inquiry should be
carried out if any criminal released from
prison on licence commits a serious crime.
We would introduce a Victims Law as
our first piece of legislation, which would
include a range of other measures to give
victims the justice they deserve.
We would also immediately reverse the
SNP’s cut to the victim support budget this
year and commit to increasing it in every
year of the next Parliament. In addition,
we would support the expansion of the
Barnahus approach, which supports
children who are victims or witnesses,
across Scotland.
Court delays prevent victims getting
justice or closure. There was already
a significant court backlog at the start
of 2020 and COVID-19 restrictions
have exacerbated the problem. We
would accelerate measures to address
the backlog and adopt permanent
modernisations.
We would review legal aid fees and work
with the legal profession to develop a
sustainable criminal defence workforce
strategy.
Our Victims Law would:
end the Not Proven verdict so victims
get a clear outcome
enable all victims to provide victim
statements so their voices are heard
implement Michelle’s Law to protect
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the decision
implement Suzanne’s Law so killers
cannot be released if they have not
revealed the location of their victim’s
body
introduce a statutory timescale for
Fatal Accident Inquiries to commence
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restrict the right of the accused to
request post-mortems to protect
murder victims families from further
trauma
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receive information about the release
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ensure families of murder victims can
access the Victim Notification Scheme
without arbitrary restrictions
expand restorative justice to allow
more victims to receive an apology
from offenders
Finally, fraud has increased dramatically
during the COVID-19 pandemic and
court delays have resulted in a lack of
prosecutions. The Scottish Conservatives
support the implementation of a statutory
aggravator meaning tougher sentences
for criminals who intentionally target
vulnerable people.
Tackling the causes of crime
Being tough on crime is important, but we
must also act to prevent crime happening
in the first place by addressing links
between crime and mental health issues,
drug and alcohol use and poverty.
The Scottish Conservatives are committed
to delivering equality of opportunity,
including tackling the issues which result in
those living in the most deprived areas of
Scotland being statistically the most likely
to be victims of crime. Education is a key
tool in reducing the likelihood of anyone
becoming involved in crime, and we are
committed to taking action to reduce
inequalities from the early years onward.
Well-resourced and responsive mental
health services are fundamental for
preventing people coming into contact with
the police. When this does happen, the
police must have clear routes for referring
anyone experiencing a mental health
crisis — we would invest a further £5 million
over the course of the next Parliament
to continue the rollout of a nationwide
Distress Brief Intervention programme. The
Scottish Conservatives will also maintain
the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit
and expand the Navigator programme
which offers support to people who have
experienced violence when they attend
emergency departments.
44 per cent of violent crimes are
committed when the offender was under
the influence of alcohol and 30 per cent
were committed under the influence of
drugs, so our support for drug and alcohol
services will also have a positive impact
on crime rates. Finally, we would support
mentoring services for veterans who are
at risk of becoming involved in the criminal
justice system.
Reducing reoffending
As well as toughening up community
sentences to ensure they are more
effective, we would also improve the
rehabilitation provided within prisons
in Scotland. All prisoners must be able
to carry out meaningful work, learn skills
which translate to jobs outside prison
and have access to a wide range of
educational opportunities. The scandal
of prisoners being paid to sit in their
cells because no work opportunities are
available must end. Screening on arrival
in prison to identify those who need basic
numeracy and literacy support could make
a massive difference to offenders’ life
chances upon release. Access to mental
health and addiction services in prison is
essential, and efforts must be stepped up
to prevent the use of drugs, particularly
new psychoactive substances, and
alcohol within prisons. Specific support
programmes should be designed and
piloted for those serving short sentences.
39
To prepare prisoners for release,
throughcare services, which the SNP
suspended in 2019, should be available to
all prisoners with input from specialist third
sector providers. We would also strengthen
links between the prison service and local
authorities to minimise re-offending when
prisoners are released.
In addition, we would refresh Scotland’s
youth justice strategy to break cycles
of offending and increase the focus
on education by incorporating formal
education into community sentences for
young offenders and making returning
to education a licence condition for any
young offenders who are released early
from a custodial sentence.
The Scottish Conservatives have strongly
opposed the SNP’s Hate Crime Act. To
protect free speech, we would introduce
a Protection of Free Speech Bill to repeal
the Hate Crime Act and prevent other
attacks on freedom of expression. While
40
genuine hate crime must be punished,
freedom of speech must be protected from
this overreaching legislation.
The prevalence of violence and harassment
against women and girls has triggered calls
for action. We believe the issue should
become a joint responsibility of the equality
and community safety ministers. This autumn,
we would launch a national campaign,
focused on schools, to challenge attitudes
towards sexual harassment.
We welcome Lady Dorrian’s review into
improving the management of sexual
offence cases and will take forward
recommendations which will improve the
experience of victims, whilst ensuring that
the right to a jury trial remains protected.
We would introduce a legal right to
anonymity for victims of sexual offences
and review whether legal changes
are required to remove the ‘rough sex
defence’ in Scotland. We would support
the implementation of the Forensic Medical
Services Act and work with health boards
and Police Scotland to ensure victims of
sexual violence are not forced to travel long
distances to be examined.
We would introduce a new ‘sex
aggravator’ to punish crimes motivated
by misogyny more harshly and provide
additional funding for domestic abuse
charities to respond to the impact of
COVID-19 until the end of 2021.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has
played a vital and diverse role throughout
the COVID-19 pandemic — we will continue
to support the wider transformation of
the service to ensure they are prepared
to tackle new and emerging risks and
support their communities. As part of this,
the Service must receive an adequate
amount of capital funding to ensure they
can operate effectively.
Representing rural Scotland
& our natural environment
Scotland’s rural communities have been
neglected by the SNP for too long.
They have been held back by poor
infrastructure, diminished services and
a lack of clarity for farmers - this must
change now. Rural areas must not be
left behind as Scotland recovers from
COVID-19, so we have set out plans to
spread economic growth and improve
public services. We must also tackle rural
crime and support the fishing and farming
communities who are the bedrock of our
rural areas.
Scotland’s rural areas are also diverse
natural environments which we must
protect - they are crucial for tackling
climate change and attracting visitors.
We would strengthen environmental and
animal welfare protections to preserve
these areas for the future.
Protecting our natural
environment for the next
generation
Our natural environment is one of
Scotland’s greatest assets, and we must
do everything we can to protect and
nurture it so it can be enjoyed by future
generations. The Scottish Conservatives
greatly value and support all those groups
which, for generations, have worked
tirelessly to maintain and enhance our
countryside, its biodiversity and the
highest standards of animal welfare.
One in nine species in Scotland are
threatened by extinction. To prevent
this, the Scottish Conservatives would
bring forward an ambitious Nature Bill to
strengthen environmental protections on
land and sea for Scottish species and their
habitats.
Our coastal communities can thrive and
grow while we better protect our marine
biology - the two are not mutually exclusive.
With 61 per cent of the UK’s domestic
waters, Scotland has an important role in
responsible marine stewardship. We will
review the current Marine Protected Areas
in Scottish waters, with a view to expanding
their extent, and pilot the introduction of
Highly Protected Marine Areas. We will
promote sustainable fishing and effective
stock management. We would establish a
£25 million Cleaner Seas Fund - to fund
projects that will take harmful products
including plastics out of our seas.
We will support the restoration and
protection of island habitats used
by seabirds. We would also protect
Scotland’s iconic salmon rivers. We will
support land managers in controlling our
deer population to reduce damage to our
natural environment.
We would establish Nature Networks
across Scotland to better safeguard
protected areas, allow species to move
between habitats and ensure that our
natural assets are treated as part of our
national infrastructure. We will work with
the UK Government to ensure Nature
Networks are seamless where they
cross between Scotland and England.
We will fund a national strategy for the
management and removal of invasive non-
native species, where they damage our
environment.
Peatland covers more than a fifth of
Scotland, yet around 80 per cent of
Scotland’s natural peatland is degraded.
To prevent further damage, we would end
peat extraction for use in compost and we
would aim to increase peatland restoration
to 20,000 hectares annually by 2024-25.
Trees are nature’s carbon capture
technology and the basis of many natural
habitats. We would increase new tree
planting in Scotland to 18,000 hectares
annually by 2024-25. However, quality and
biodiversity are also important, so we would
increase the proportion of new planting
that is of native species, while ensuring that
Scotland’s forests are productive. We would
work with the construction sector to increase
the use of timber for building. We would
place a particular emphasis on protecting
and reversing the decline in Atlantic
woodlands, known as Scotland's rainforests.
In recognition of the role of nature in
helping many people to get through the
pandemic and to collectively remember
friends and family who lost their lives to
coronavirus, we would focus our tree
41
planting over the next year on the creation
of COVID Memorial Gardens in and
around communities.
Scotland has two national parks, Loch
Lomond and The Trossachs and the
Cairngorms. Nearly twenty years on from
their creation, we would create Scotland’s
third national park in Galloway and
consider other proposals for further parks.
As we have seen during the pandemic,
green spaces are essential for our mental
wellbeing and physical health. For many
people, our Green Belts provide this
escape and they also protect our natural
landscape from expanding development.
We will strengthen protections for
Green Belts, both to protect the land and
encourage the development of brownfield
sites in cities and towns.
Delivering the highest
standards of animal
welfare
The Scottish Conservatives stand for the
highest standards in animal welfare. We
are proud of our campaign to deliver Finn’s
Law in the last Parliament, giving proper
protection to service animals like police
dogs. We will continue to work with other
parties across the Scottish Parliament
to strengthen protections for animals
in Scotland by bringing forward a new
Animal Welfare Bill.
As a result of the lockdown, the demand
for pets is at an all-time high. Less
scrupulous sellers will see this as an
opportunity and pet theft has increased.
It is unfortunately likely that we will see
many animals not receiving the attention
they deserve, being mistreated or being
abandoned when restrictions are lifted
and normal life resumes. Vigilance on the
part of lawmakers towards the treatment
of domesticated animals will be more
important than it has ever been.
While ear cropping dogs has been made
illegal across the UK it is still possible for
dogs to have their ears cropped abroad
and then brought to this country for sale.
As part of our Animal Welfare Bill, we
would ban the sale of dogs with cropped
ears in Scotland. We would follow
Wales in banning the use of electric
shock collars. We would amend the
Dangerous Dogs Act, so that dogs are not
automatically put down due to their breed.
We also would take forward measures to
improve the welfare of farmed animals in
transportation. In doing so, we will take
account of Scotland’s geography and
established farming models. We do not
believe that the scheme as proposed in
England is right for Scotland.
Cracking down on rural
crime
The nature of crime is often different in
rural and remote areas but it is no less
severe - the cost of rural crime has more
than doubled since 2017. It needs to be
treated with the magnitude it deserves,
starting with a review of sentences and
penalties. We would also take steps to
improve the reporting and recording
of rural crime and support the Scottish
Partnership Against Rural Crime to spread
best practice for liaising with farmers and
rural communities within Police Scotland.
Litter, fly-tipping and irresponsible
camping are an increasing blight on our
natural environment and green spaces
in communities across Scotland. We will
increase fixed penalties and maximum
fines for litter and fly-tipping and
use the increased income to resource
council enforcement measures, as well
as introducing regular reporting. We will
also bring in new legislation to ensure that
local authorities and other agencies can
effectively prosecute offenders and make
them pay for clean up costs.
We helped shape new livestock worrying
legislation and will deliver tougher and
more comprehensive legislation to tackle
this issue and compensate farmers in our
Animal Welfare Bill.
With more people spending time
outdoors, we must encourage them to
enjoy Scotland’s countryside responsibly.
We would expand Visit Scotland’s
current responsible tourism campaign
to provide farmers with resources to
explain the Scottish Outdoor Access
Code to the public and provide packs to
schools to teach children about how to
protect the countryside. We would also
commit to expanding ranger services
permanently by delivering the actions set
out in NatureScot’s policy statement and
ensuring they have the funding they need.
Supporting Scotland’s
farming communities
Agriculture is the backbone of our rural
communities, from the rich and fertile
arable heartlands of Aberdeenshire, East
Lothian and Angus to the dairy farms
of Dumfries and Galloway and the hill
sheep farms and crofts of Argyll and the
Highlands and Islands.
However, the SNP have repeatedly
failed to support Scotland’s farmers and
crofters during their 14 years in power.
Their botched CAP payment system
left farmers out of pocket and uncertain
about the future of their farms. They
scrapped support for new entrants into
the sector and have cut agri-environment
support. They short-changed farmers to
plug gaps in the Less Favoured Areas
Support Scheme and have failed to tackle
rural crime.
This cannot continue. The Scottish
Conservatives will work to deliver the
changes needed to support this crucial
sector. Leaving the European Union has
presented challenges and opportunities for
Scotland’s farming communities, and we
must take action now to secure the benefits
it can provide. The SNP have dallied and
delayed - they promised to set out details
of Scotland’s new agricultural policy by the
end of 2020, but farmers are still waiting.
We must not waste any more time.
Uncertainty over the new approach means
that farmers are holding off from investing
in their businesses until the direction
of travel has been set. A blueprint for
43
consultation must be published within 100
days of the May election.
Alongside a new farm payment system,
we would work with Scotland’s world-
leading food and drink sector to boost
demand for Scottish produce and
ensure the farming sector is sustainable
by supporting new innovations and
technology as well as new entrants.
Scotland’s new agricultural policy
In the immediate future, stability is
required to enable farmers and crofters
to prepare for the introduction of
Scotland’s new agricultural policy. The UK
Government has provided a commitment
to maintain current funding levels until
2024, providing a stable backdrop as
the new policy is developed. However,
changes to the current agriculture support
system are also required to provide
stability and certainty until the new
system is implemented.
Work to improve the Basic Payment
System, remove the Crop Diversification
requirement and amend the Scottish
Suckler Beef Support Scheme, Scottish
Upland Sheep Support Scheme and
Beef Efficiency Scheme must continue.
In addition, the Permanent Grassland
requirement should be removed and a
review of Ecological Focus Areas should
be carried out.
Farmers and crofters make a significant
contribution to efforts to reduce carbon
emissions through their stewardship of the
countryside, often without any financial
44
support. Many are willing to go further, but
the SNP’s current funding is insufficient
- the Scottish Conservatives would
reverse cuts to the Agri-Environment
Climate Scheme and agree a multi-year
extension until the new agricultural policy
is implemented. We would also review the
value of the Agricultural Transformation
Programme, while ensuring the funding is
spent effectively to support low emission
farming.
Scotland’s new agricultural policy
must allow farmers to farm, while also
supporting the sector to become more
sustainable and meet the Ambition 30
target for Scotland’s farming, fishing, and
food and drink sectors to double their
turnover by 2030.
The development of the new agricultural
policy must be farmer-led and we
would work with the sector to design it,
prioritising simplicity at every stage. The
Scottish Conservatives believe it must
adequately support the diversity of farms
in Scotland, particularly those in less
favoured areas, by ensuring a basic level
of funding is provided to all farmers and
crofters who are carrying out responsible
agricultural activity. We believe additional
funding should be focused on improving
productivity and sustainability. It must
also support farmers to make long-term
investments and reduce bureaucracy.
We would ensure Regional Land Use
Partnerships sufficiently represent the
agricultural sector and support the
delivery of the new agricultural policy.
In addition, we would work closely with
the UK Government to deliver a UkK-
wide funding framework which supports
Scotland’s new agricultural policy and
recognise the importance of trade within
the UK to our agricultural producers.
Boosting innovation
While encouraging innovation should
be central to Scotland’s new agricultural
policy, additional support will also be
required to ensure our farmers and
crofters are able to continue making high
quality products like Aberdeen Angus
beef, Scotch lamb and malting barley for
Scotch whisky.
To help attract young people to work in
agriculture, a review of the qualifications
available in Scotland’s schools and
colleges should be carried out to ensure
high-quality options, from full-time courses
to apprenticeships, are available. It is vital
that young people receive cutting edge
training in modern farming methods if
they are to support our farms to keep
innovating. Even once trained, it can be
too difficult for young farmers to enter
the sector without inheriting a farm. We
would support new entrants in the sector
by reinstating the Young Farmers and
New Entrants Start Up Grants as well as
the New Entrants Capital Grant Scheme.
We would encourage intergenerational
partnerships via mentoring schemes,
with a focus on supporting women in the
sector. We would also support succession
planning and ensure farm tenancies work
for tenants and landowners.
Existing farmers need access to the latest
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skills too, so we would launch a national
agricultural Institute of Technology to bring
together farmers, colleges and universities
to deliver short modular training courses
for farmers, online and face-to-face. We
would invest an additional £10 million
a year in agricultural research and
development and support pilot farms to
trial new ways to improve farm efficiency
and spread best practice across Scotland.
We would work with the UK Government
to ensure the Shared Prosperity Fund
includes schemes which promote farm
diversification.
Creating a National Food
Strategy
To achieve Ambition 2030, we must
increase demand for local Scottish
produce as well as supply. The SNP failed
to deliver the promised Good Food Nation
Bill, so the Scottish Conservatives would
launch a comprehensive ‘farm to fork’
review of Scotland’s food policy as a key
part of Scotland’s economic recovery from
COVID-19.
The UK’s food system coped remarkably
well during the pandemic, but it
demonstrated our reliance on ‘just in
time’ supply chains and imports from
abroad. Encouraging public services,
businesses and individuals to buy more
local products will have multiple benefits.
Our review would build on Ambition 2030
and use Scotland’s new agricultural policy
as a foundation. It should be led by an
independent figure and report by summer
2022. Its remit should include ways to
46
strengthen producers’ bargaining power,
support them to upscale and export, better
label Scottish produce, ensure public
procurement utilises Scottish produce
wherever possible, promote Scottish
produce at home and abroad, including in
our schools, reduce food waste and boost
food and agri-tourism.
Promoting our fishing
sector
Now that we have left the EU and the
Common Fisheries Policy, the Scottish
fishing sector has the opportunity to
grow after years of managed decline.
There have been initial difficulties, but the
opportunity remains.
The Scottish and UK Governments need
to work together to land that opportunity.
The UK Government has committed
£100 million towards modernising the
catching and processing sectors and the
Scottish Government will receive another
£14.5 million per year to support Scottish
fishing - both of Scotland’s governments
must work together to use this funding to
deliver a better future for the sector.
To do this, the Scottish Conservatives
would negotiate a transformative sector
deal for Scottish fishing so that we can
bring together catchers and processors
with the Scottish and UK Government
around a shared vision for the future of
the industry. This will grow the sector by
setting a long-term investment strategy
with government and employers.
The Scottish Conservatives will take
further action to support our coastal
communities, including by supporting
freeport bids and targeting Community
Investment Deal funding at these areas.
Protecting the most
vulnerable in our society
The Scotland Act 2016 devolved
substantial welfare powers, including
control over benefits worth £3.6 billion, to
the Scottish Parliament. It will take the SNP
Government nearly a decade to accept
the full transfer of devolved benefits,
when in 2014 they promised that an
independent Scotland would take just 18
months to set up. Meanwhile, the costs of
setting up their new social security agency
have doubled to £651 million - money being
used for administration instead of helping
claimants.
The UK Government has increased
Universal Credit payments by £20 per week
to support those on low or no pay during
the pandemic. The Scottish Conservative
approach to our social security system
will build on this by targeting the use of
our devolved powers to help specific
groups within our society. We will deliver
a distinctive ‘Scottish approach’ to social
security underpinned by the broad
shoulders of the UK welfare state.
Tackling child poverty
One in four children in Scotland live in
poverty, with poverty rates forecast to rise
over the next ten years. Poverty has only
increased as a result of the pandemic
and will rise further if we do not focus
on our economic recovery and tackling
unemployment. It is those with the least
that are most damaged by the impact of
recessions.
The Scottish Conservatives believe that
getting our economic recovery right and
focusing on creating jobs is an important
initial step in challenging poverty. Over a
third of children in poverty live in workless
households. Therefore, delivering a
growing economy with full employment
is essential to tackling child poverty.
However, while work is the best route
out of poverty, that is not the only action
we should take to tackle child poverty.
That is why we would deliver free school
lunches and breakfasts for all children
in primary school, ensuring that they get
a decent meal twice per day. We will also
build 40,000 new homes in the social
rented sector to ensure that children grow
up in warm, safe housing. In addition, we
would complete the rollout of the Scottish
Child Payment and increase payments
to £20 per week by the end of the
Parliament.
Supporting carers
Unpaid carers are the backbone of
our social care system, yet they often
go unrecognised. It is impossible for
government to do enough to reward
carers for what they do but that should not
stop us from striving to do more.
We would ensure respite services are
supported to reopen to assist carers who
have been under extreme pressure during
the pandemic. Existing carers legislation
must be fully funded and implemented,
and services for unpaid carers must be
joined up to prevent carers falling through
the cracks.
We would improve the Carers Allowance
by introducing a taper rate so that carers
do not lose 100 per cent of their allowance
if they earn £1 over the £128 per week
limit on earnings. We will also extend
payments of Carers Allowance to up to
six months after bereavement and allow
carers in full time education to continue to
receive Carers Allowance.
We must ensure carers are supported
to remain in work wherever possible,
including by providing dedicated
employability services to support those
who have had to give up work to return
when they are able.
We would introduce a new action plan
for young carers to ensure there is a
coordinated approach to identification and
support.
Tackling homelessness
Homelessness is a blight on modern
Scotland. Over 5,000 adults sleep rough at
least once per year, with our homelessness
death rate being double that of England
and Wales. The number of children living in
temporary accommodation has reached its
highest level since records began. This is a
national scandal that requires action, which
49
is why we are committed to eradicating
rough sleeping in Scotland by 2026.
We would accelerate Housing First and
roll this approach out across all local
authorities, to get people into safe and
stable housing as quickly as possible.
50
Pioneered in New York in the 1990s,
Housing First emphasises that having a
settled home will ensure people have the
security they need to fully engage with
other forms of support and begin to turn
their lives around. However, in Scotland,
the SNP are removing central funding
from the programme, leaving it to local
authorities to deliver. We would invest
£10.8 million over the next Parliament
to deliver a national Housing First
Programme.
We would also utilise the private rented
sector in the medium term, with a Help
to Rent scheme, to support people who
are homeless or at risk of homelessness
to access and sustain a tenancy in the
private rented sector. Over the long-term
we will ensure that there is sufficient
accommodation across Scotland with
the biggest social housing building
programme since devolution.
Supporting people with
disabilities into employment
We believe that everyone should be
entitled to work and that everyone should
be given the support they need to get
secure employment. The SNP’s Fair Start
Scotland programme has failed to help
people with disabilities into jobs, with
just 1in 6 participants finding long-term
employment.
The Scottish Conservatives believe that
a new approach to supporting disability
employment is required. We would create
a government owned company, based
on the Swedish Samhall model, providing
meaningful employment opportunities
for people with disabilities. The aim of
this model would be to give people with
disabilities the experience and in-work
skills they need to secure long-term
employment outside of the company. We
would also establish a fundamental review
of disability assistance, to deliver a human
rights-based system.
Making Scotland a land fit for
heroes and their families
Veterans have served our country, some
in life-endangering situations, and now our
duty is to serve them. Yet there are many
veterans and families that are not being
recognised for their sacrifice — they may
be homeless, struggling to get a hospital
appointment or trapped in a cycle of
reoffending.
The Scottish Conservatives aspire to be
the natural party of our Armed Forces
and Scotland’s veteran community. That
is why we fought at Westminster for
service personnel living in Scotland to be
compensated for the SNP’s higher income
tax so that they did not receive less pay
than their comrades.
We value the sacrifices made by those
who have served in our Armed Forces
and their families and know how difficult
the transition to civilian life can be. We
also know the value that veterans and
their families can bring to the communities
in which they choose to live. We want
servicemen and women who choose to
settle in Scotland upon leaving the Forces
to know that they are settling in a land
fit for heroes, that offers them and their
families the most generous support of any
part of the UK.
To achieve this, we will bring forward an
Armed Forces and Veterans Bill which
will further incorporate the Armed Forces
Covenant in law for devolved Scottish
public bodies like local government
and our NHS. We would encourage
businesses to voluntarily sign up to its
provisions. Through the Bill we will also
enhance support for veterans to transition
to civilian life and make the best use of
their talents, recognising them for the
asset that they are to our communities and
economy.
We will use our devolved welfare
powers to create a new top-up benefit
for veterans households in receipt of
Universal Credit. In addition, we would
introduce a specific veterans’ Help to Buy
scheme to give veterans and their families
more support when buying a home in
Scotland.
Delivering aid abroad
The Scottish Conservatives are committed
to promoting Scotland’s role at home and
abroad. Scotland plays an important part
in the Uk’s international aid commitment,
which is among the most generous of
any major economy in the world. We
support the continuation of the Scottish
Government's £10 million International
Development Fund and the long-standing
Scotland Malawi Partnership.
Providing equal opportunities
We will tackle prejudice and discrimination
in all forms to ensure no one is held
back from succeeding due to their race,
sexuality, gender, religion or disability.
Equality of opportunity for all is central to
our conservative values, so we will embed
the removal of barriers into all our policies.
We would work with the UK Government
to end conversion therapy in Scotland
and ensure frontline responders are
trained to support victims of hate crime.
We would also work with community
representatives to develop a targeted
approach to tackling poverty amongst
ethnic minorities and take forward work
to tackle poor health outcomes amongst
ethnic minority groups, building on the
work of the Expert Reference Group on
COVID-19 and Ethnicity.
51
ee =
—s - | re =
Ensuring the Scottish
Parliament works in the
national interest
The next Scottish Parliament must be
one that works in our national interest. It
needs to put political obsessions to one
side and focus 100 per cent on managing
this pandemic and rebuilding our country.
That can only happen if we stop an SNP
majority and their push for a divisive
second independence referendum,
which only a party list vote for the Scottish
Conservatives can do.
In a hung parliament, we have the
opportunity to strengthen the role of the
opposition to hold the government to
account. This will ensure that we avoid
bad law like the Hate Crime Act, Named
Persons Scheme and Offensive Behaviour
at Football Act. It also means that we can
reduce the cost of politics, leading to
smaller and more efficient government.
Strengthening Scottish
democracy
The past five years have seen the Scottish
Parliament implementing the powers
that were devolved in the Scotland Act
2016. However, many powers over tax
and welfare are still administered by the
UK Government and a date has not yet
been set for the Scottish Government
to completely take over. The focus in
our Parliament needs to be on using the
powers that we have to rebuild Scotland,
not on more arguments about powers for
their own sake.
The Referendum Act would allow the
SNP to fast track their plans for a divisive
second independence referendum with
minimal scrutiny. We would repeal the
Referendum Act to remove the threat
of the SNP rushing through another
independence referendum.
At Westminster, there are clear rules
around recall, allowing a by-election to
take place in certain circumstances, but
no such rules exist for MSPs. We will
introduce Mackay’s Law, allowing the
public to recall MSPs who have broken
the law, grossly undermined trust or
failed to contribute to Parliament for
more than six months. This will mean that
Scotland will never again face the scandal
of a disgraced former minister remaining
an MSP, earning over £100,000 and failing
to represent his constituents.
Scotland was the first part of the UK to
deliver votes for 16- and 17-year-olds for
Scottish Parliament and local elections.
The Scottish Conservatives continue to
support a voting age of 16 for all Scottish
elections.
We believe that the SNP Government’s
decision to give the vote to prisoners
is an affront to democracy. Offenders
should lose their right to vote when they
commit serious crime and are still serving
their punishment. As the only party in
the Scottish Parliament that opposed
prisoner voting being introduced, we
would revoke this right.
Strengthening the opposition
The SNP Government claims to stand up
for the Scottish Parliament but regularly
ignores its votes and treats it with
contempt. Over the last six months, our
parliamentary processes have been
exposed as weak and not up to the task
of holding the government to account.
We will lead a cross-party commission on
improving how the Scottish Parliament
operates and strengthening its role in
scrutinising the Scottish Government. This
will include considering the accountability
of ministers to Parliament through a
disciplinary process independent of
government, lack of legal protections
for MSPs in debate and the election of
committee chairs.
We will also use this commission to
explore how we modernise the working
53
practices of the Scottish Parliament, to
make them more suitable for MSPs with
young families.
Cutting the cost of Holyrood
politics
We believe in efficient government, not
costly politics. The SNP used to promise a
“smaller, better-focused ministerial team”
that would “reduce bureaucracy” but over
their 14 years in government the SNP
have become more bloated than the
Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition they
replaced.
To reduce the cost of politics and get
the Scottish Government 100 per cent
focused on the task of rebuilding our
country, we support a reduction in the size
of the Cabinet from 12 to 6, as the SNP
themselves did in 2007, and a cap on the
number of ministers and advisers. This
will create a more focused team, solely
engaged in our economic recovery and
the running of devolved public services.
Given the need to maximise resources
going to our frontline public services
and the need for politicians to lead by
example, we will support a freeze in
MSP and ministerial pay for the next five
years.
54
Prioritising our
recovery
The next five years need to be focused
on acollective national effort to rebuild
Scotland from the impact of coronavirus.
We need to support our public services
to help the people who rely on them and
kickstart our economy to create jobs. This
should be the priority now for our Scottish
Parliament.
After the election, the Scottish
Conservatives will be prepared to work
with any party that wants to put our
recovery first and deliver a programme
to rebuild Scotland. Now is the time for
coming together in the national interest,
not old rivalries and party politics.
However, we cannot deliver our recovery
if our Parliament and our country are
paralysed by the SNP’s obsession
with another divisive independence
referendum. We cannot move forward
if we are divided by an SNP majority
government that wants to put that
referendum before our recovery.
That is why we are asking you to use
your party list vote for the Scottish
Conservatives on the 6" of May, to stop
a second referendum and secure our
recovery.
If pro-UK voters come together behind the
Scottish Conservatives then we can stop
an SNP majority, just like we did in 2016,
and ensure that the Scottish Parliament
focuses on our recovery.
A second referendum is the last thing
we need right now. It is time to rebuild
Scotland.
55
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